1 research outputs found
Adsorption hysteresis and capillary condensation in disordered porous solids: a density functional study
We present a theoretical study of capillary condensation of fluids adsorbed
in mesoporous disordered media. Combining mean-field density functional theory
with a coarse-grained description in terms of a lattice-gas model allows us to
investigate both the out-of-equilibrium (hysteresis) and the equilibrium
behavior. We show that the main features of capillary condensation in
disordered solids result from the appearance of a complex free-energy landscape
with a large number of metastable states. We detail the numerical procedures
for finding these states, and the presence or absence of transitions in the
thermodynamic limit is determined by careful finite-size studies.Comment: 30 pages, 18 figures. To appear in J. Phys.: Condens. Matte