The influence of random changes in the adsorbing potential on phase transitions in a Lennard-Jones fluid confined to energetically heterogeneous slit-like pores

A density functional approach is used to study the adsorption and phase beh aviour of a Lennard-Jones (LJ) fluid in slit-like pores with energetically heterogeneous walls, investigating how the randomly varying part of the flu id-solid potential imposed on a periodic 'background' potential modifies th e phase behaviour of the confined fluid. Non-local density functional theor y is employed to describe the system. To study the system with a random ext ernal field, the method used is based on investigations of several replicas of the system and on averaging the final thermodynamic results over the re plicas.