Effect of pore morphology on vapor-liquid phase transition and crossover behavior of critical properties from 3D to 2D

Grand-canonical transition-matrix Monte Carlo (GC-TMMC) simulation, is used to investigate the effect of pore shape and surface-fluid strength on the vapor-liquid phase transition and crossover behavior of critical properties from 3D to 2D of a square well (SW) fluid. We present the vapor-liquid coexistence phase diagram in hard and attractive cylindrical pores of varying slit width from 4 to 50 molecular diameters. This investigation indicates that having same pore shape but different surface nature can significantly alter the coexistence envelopes and hence the critical point. Critical temperature is found to approach the 3D bulk value monotonically irrespective of the pore shape and surface nature. However, the rate of approach of critical point towards the 3D bulk value decreases as the effective confinement increases. On the other hand, approach of pore critical density towards the bulk 3D value follows a non-monotonic path, irrespective of pore shape and surface strength. Interestingly, with the same pore shape, attractive wall surface follows an opposite trend to approach the bulk critical density as compared to that of hard wall surface. Crossover from 3D to 2D behavior in the hard cylindrical pores is observed around 28 molecular diameters, which is significantly larger than that observed by earlier workers for hard and attractive slit pores. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.