Physics – Condensed Matter – Soft Condensed Matter
Scientific paper
2011-09-07
Physics
Condensed Matter
Soft Condensed Matter
26 pages, 8 figures. In publication in Molecular Physics, special volume dedicated to Luciano Reatto for his 70th birthday
Scientific paper
We study fluid-fluid phase separation in a colloid-polymer mixture adsorbed in a colloidal porous matrix close to the \theta -point. For this purpose we consider the Asakura-Oosawa model in the presence of a quenched matrix of colloidal hard spheres. We study the dependence of the demixing curve on the parameters that characterize the quenched matrix, fixing the polymer-to-colloid size ratio to 0.8. We find that, to a large extent, demixing curves depend only on a single parameter f, which represents the volume fraction which is unavailable to the colloids. We perform Monte Carlo simulations for volume fractions f equal to 40% and 70%, finding that the binodal curves in the polymer and colloid packing-fraction plane have a small dependence on disorder. The critical point instead changes significantly: for instance, the colloid packing fraction at criticality increases with increasing f. Finally, we observe for some values of the parameters capillary condensation of the colloids: a bulk colloid-poor phase is in chemical equilibrium with a colloid-rich phase in the matrix.
Annunziata Mario Alberto
Pelissetto Andrea
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