Nucleation on a sphere: the roles of curvature, confinement and ensemble
arXiv:1805.12020 · doi:10.1080/00268976.2018.1483041
Abstract
By combining Monte Carlo simulations and analytical models, we demonstrate and explain how the gas-to-liquid phase transition of colloidal systems confined to a spherical surface depends on the curvature and size of the surface, and on the choice of thermodynamic ensemble. We find that the geometry of the surface affects the shape of the free energy profile and the size of the critical nucleus by altering the perimeter-area ratio of isotropic clusters. Confinement to a smaller spherical surface results in both a lower nucleation barrier and a smaller critical nucleus size. Furthermore, the liquid domain does not grow indefinitely on a sphere. Saturation of the liquid density in the grand canonical ensemble and the depletion of the gas phase in the canonical ensemble lead to a minimum in the free energy profile, with a sharp increase in free energy for additional growth beyond this minimum.
arXiv comment13 pages, 7 figures 1 Revision: In the original arXive submission, Halim Kusumaatmaja's name has been mistakenly left out of the metadata
References in corpus (18)
- Grain Boundary Scars and Spherical Crystallography
- Critical point and coexistence curve properties of the Lennard-Jones fluid: A finite-size scaling study
- Crystal nucleation of hard spheres using molecular dynamics, umbrella sampling and forward flux sampling: A comparison of simulation techniques
- Avoiding unphysical kinetic traps in Monte Carlo simulations of strongly attractive particles
- Thermodynamic Properties of the van der Waals Fluid
- Direct Visualization of Dislocation Dynamics in Grain Boundary Scars
- Phase diagram of the adhesive hard sphere fluid
- Computer simulation of fluid phase transitions
- Phase nucleation in curved space
- Defect Motifs for Constant Mean Curvature Surfaces
- How Close to Two Dimensions Does a Lennard-Jones System Need to Be to Produce a Hexatic Phase?
- Emergent structure of multi-dislocation ground states in curved crystals
- Gas-Liquid Nucleation in Two Dimensional System
- The structure of colloidosomes with tunable particle density: simulation vs experiment
- Topological vacancies in spherical crystal clusters
- Dynamics of a monodisperse Lennard-Jones system on a sphere
- Phase separation on the sphere: Patchy particles and self-assembly
- Phase Separation on Bicontinuous Cubic Membranes: Symmetry Breaking, Re-entrant and Domain Facetting