Issue 9, 2024

Phase behavior of patchy colloids confined in patchy porous media

Abstract

A simple model for functionalized disordered porous media is proposed and the effects of confinement on self-association, percolation and phase behavior of a fluid of patchy particles are studied. The media are formed by randomly distributed hard-sphere obstacles fixed in space and decorated by a certain number of off-center square-well sites. The properties of the fluid of patchy particles, represented by the fluid of hard spheres each bearing a set of the off-center square-well sites, are studied using an appropriate combination of the scaled particle theory for the porous media, Wertheim's thermodynamic perturbation theory, and Flory–Stockmayer theory. To assess the accuracy of the theory a set of computer simulations have been performed. In general, predictions of the theory appeared to be in good agreement with the computer simulation results. Confinement and competition between the formation of bonds connecting the fluid particles, and connecting fluid particles and obstacles of the matrix, gave rise to a re-entrant phase behavior with three critical points and two separate regions of the liquid–gas phase coexistence.

Graphical abstract: Phase behavior of patchy colloids confined in patchy porous media

Associated articles

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
15 jun 2023
Accepted
15 jan 2024
First published
19 jan 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Nanoscale, 2024,16, 4668-4677

Phase behavior of patchy colloids confined in patchy porous media

Y. V. Kalyuzhnyi, T. Patsahan, M. Holovko and P. T. Cummings, Nanoscale, 2024, 16, 4668 DOI: 10.1039/D3NR02866F

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