LIQUID-VAPOR COEXISTENCE IN A CHEMICALLY HETEROGENEOUS SLIT-NANOPORE

A Lennard-Jonesium film confined between planar walls made of alternat ing strips of strongly and weakly adsorbing solid substrate was simula ted by the grand canonical Monte Carlo method. When the walls are mole cularly close, they serve as a nanoscale template, on which liquid bri dging the gaps between the ''strong'' strips coexists with gas over th e ''weak'' ones. The structure of the nanoscopic liquid-gas interface has the same form as that of the planar interface, When the walls beco me too far apart, the bridges give way to ''nanodroplets'' adhering to the strong strips coexisting with dilute gas.