2000/07/18 by F. Schmid, Friederike Schmid, Nigel B. Wilding +1 · 1 citation
Chemistry · Engineering · Materials Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Binary number #Binodal #Chemistry #Component (thermodynamics) #Condensed matter physics #Material Dynamics and Properties #Materials science #Mathematical analysis #Mathematics #Monte Carlo method #Phase (matter) #Phase Equilibria and Thermodynamics #Phase diagram #Physics #Piecewise #Statistical physics #Theoretical and Computational Physics #Thermodynamics #Tricritical point #Wetting #Wetting transition #cond-mat.soft #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.63.031201
submitted to Phys. Rev. E
arxiv created 2000/07/18 · openalex publication_date 2001/02/14 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We study the wetting behavior of a symmetrical binary fluid below the demixing temperature at a nonselective attractive wall. Although it demixes in the bulk, a sufficiently thin liquid film remains mixed. On approaching liquid vapor coexistence, however, the thickness of the liquid film increases and it may demix and then wet the substrate. We show that the wetting properties are determined by an interplay of the two length scales related to the density and the composition fluctuations. The problem is analyzed within the framework of a generic two component Ginzburg-Landau functional (appropriate for systems with short-ranged interactions). This functional is minimized both numerically and analytically within a piecewise parabolic potential approximation. A number of surface transitions are found, including first-order demixing and prewetting, continuous demixing, a tricritical point connecting the two regimes, or a critical end point beyond which the prewetting line separates a strongly and a weakly demixed film. Our results are supported by detailed Monte Carlo simulations of a symmetrical binary Lennard-Jones fluid at an attractive wall.