2008/12/03 by Edgar M. Blokhuis · 1 citation
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Block Copolymer Self-Assembly #Material Dynamics and Properties #Phase Equilibria and Thermodynamics #cond-mat.soft #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.3054346
18 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in The Journal of Chemical Physics
arxiv created 2008/12/03 · openalex publication_date 2009/01/07 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We show that to account for the full spectrum of surface fluctuations from low scattering vector qd<<1 (classical capillary wave theory) to high qd approximately > 1 (bulklike fluctuations), one must take account of the interface's bending rigidity at intermediate scattering vector qd approximately < 1, where d is the molecular diameter. A molecular model is presented to describe the bending correction to the capillary wave model for short-ranged and long-ranged interactions between molecules. We find that the bending rigidity is negative when the Gibbs equimolar surface is used to define the location of the fluctuating interface and that on approach to the critical point it vanishes proportionally to the interfacial tension. Both features are in agreement with Monte Carlo simulations of a phase-separated colloid-polymer system.