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Capillary evaporation in colloid-polymer mixtures
selectively confined to a planar slit M. Schmidt, A. Fortini, and M. Dijkstra, J. Phys.: Condens. Matt. 16, S4159 (2004). Locate in [bare] [illustrated] list. Get [full paper] as pdf. Abstract. Using density functional theory and Monte Carlo simulations we investigate the Asakura-Oosawa-Vrij mixture of hard sphere colloids and non-adsorbing ideal polymers under selective confinement of the colloids to a planar slab geometry. This is a model for confinement of colloid-polymer mixtures by either two parallel walls with a semi-permeable polymer coating or through the use of laser tweezers. We find that such a pore favours the colloidal gas over the colloidal liquid phase and induces capillary evaporation. A treatment based on the Kelvin equation gives a good account of the location of the capillary binodal for large slit widths. The colloid density profile is found to exhibit a minimum (maximum) at contact with the wall for large (small) slit widths. [figures] Read the [full paper] as pdf. |