Abstract
A recently reported symmetry breaking of density profiles of fluid argon confined by two parallel solid walls of carbon dioxide is studied. The calculations are performed in the framework of a nonlocal density functional theory. It is shown that the existence of such asymmetrical solutions is restricted to a special choice for the adsorption potential, where the attraction of the solid-fluid interaction is reduced by the introduction of a hard-wall repulsion. The behavior as a function of the slit's width is also discussed. All the results are placed in the context of the current knowledge on this matter.
Highlights
In a quite recent paper, Berim and Ruckenstein[1] have reported symmetry breaking of the density profile of fluid argonArconfined in a planar slit with identical walls of carbon dioxideCO2͒
It was assumed that the Ar atoms interact via a standard Lennard–JonesLJpotential characterized by the strength ff and the atomic diameter ff
The presented results were obtained from calculations carried out with the smoothed density approximationSDAversion[2,3] of the nonlocal density functional theoryDFTin the case of a closed planar slit with an effective width of 15ff
Summary
In a quite recent paper, Berim and Ruckenstein[1] have reported symmetry breaking of the density profile of fluid argonArconfined in a planar slit with identical walls of carbon dioxideCO2͒. These authors claimed that a completely symmetric integral equation provides an asymmetric profile which has a lower free energy than that of the lowest symmetric solution leading to a symmetry breaking phenomenon. We investigate the existence of stable asymmetric solutions for the density profiles when the position of the hard-wall repulsion introduced in Ref. 1 is changed.
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