Critical temperature estimation of bulk and confined atomic fluid using vapour−liquid interfacial free energy.

The critical temperatures of bulk and confined atomic fluids are investigated using values of the vapour−liquid interfacial free energy of coexistence obtained from grand-canonical transition-matrix Monte Carlo simulations using a histogram reweighting technique. The temperature corresponding to zero interfacial free energy of coexistence is the estimated critical temperature for the system under investigation. Slit width of confined atomic fluid for this investigation is varied from 40 to 1 fluid particle diameter. The obtained critical temperatures have shown nonlinear monotonic trend with inverse of slit width. Moreover, five different linear regimes of critical temperature are observed in the studied range of slit width. Interestingly, in the slit width range of less than two fluid particle diameters, the critical temperature approaches two-dimensional value and remains approximately indifferent with a decrease in slit width up to one fluid particle diameter. This investigation also reveals that the critical temperature of bulk and confined atomic fluid estimated using the vapour−liquid interfacial free energy of coexistence is within reasonable accuracy with that obtained using the simplified form of scaling law. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]