Dynamic mean field theory of condensation and evaporation processes for fluids in porous materials: Application to partial drying and drying

Abstract

We study the dynamics of evaporation for lattice gas models of fluids in porous materials using a recently developed dynamic mean field theory. The theory yields a description of the dynamics that is consistent with the mean field theory of the thermodynamics at equilibrium. The nucleation processes associated with phase changes in the pore are emergent features of the dynamics. Our focus is on situations where there is partial drying or drying in the system, associated with weakly attractive or repulsive interactions between the fluid and the pore walls. We consider two systems in this work: (i) a two-dimensional slit pore geometry relevant to the study of adsorption/desorption or intrusion/extrusion dynamics for fluids in porous materials and (ii) a three dimensional slit pore modeling a pair of square plates in a bath of liquid as used in recent theoretical studies of dewetting processes between hydrophobic surfaces. We assess the theory by comparison with a higher order approximation to the dynamics that yields the Bethe-Peierls or quasi-chemical approximation at equilibrium.