Phase equilibria and interfacial properties of two-dimensional Yukawa fluids

Abstract

Molecular dynamics simulations of two-dimensional soft Yukawa fluids are performed to analyze the effect that the range of interaction has on coexisting densities and line tension. The attractive one-component fluid and equimolar mixtures containing positive and negative particles are studied at different temperatures to locate the region where the vapor-solid and vapor-liquid phases are stable. When the range of interaction decreases, the critical temperature of the attractive one-component systems decreases. However, for the charged mixtures it increases, and this opposite behaviour is understood in terms of the repulsive interactions which are dominant for these systems. The stable phase diagram of two-dimensional fluids is defined for smaller values of the decay parameter \lambda\ than that of fluids in three dimensions. The two-dimensional attractive one-component fluid has stable liquid-vapor phase diagram for values of \lambda<3, in contrast to the three-dimensional case, where stability has been observed even for values of \lambda<15. The same trend is observed in equimolar mixtures of particles carrying opposite charges.