Geometrical Aspects of Drying in a Capped Capillary: a DFT Study

Abstract

The order of the liquid–solid phase transition of a fluid confined by a capillary of two parallel walls can be changed from first to second order if the capillary is capped at one end by a third wall. This change of order of the phase transition was predicted using an effective interfacial Hamiltonian model and was recently confirmed by a microscopic density functional theory study. In this study some geometrical aspects of the continous transition in a capped capillary are considered within the framework of density functional theory.