Phase Behavior of the Patchy Colloids Confined in the Patchy Porous Media

Abstract

A simple model for functionalized disordered porous media is proposed and the effects of confinement on self-association, percolation and phase behavior of a fluid of patchy particles are studied. The media is formed by a randomly distributed hard-sphere obstacles fixed in space and decorated by a certain number of off-center square-well sites. The properties of the fluid of patchy particles, represented by the fluid of hard spheres each bearing a set of the off-center square-well sites, are studied using an appropriate combination of the scaled particle theory for the porous media, Wertheim's thermodynamic perturbation theory, and the Flory-Stockmayer theory. To assess the accuracy of the theory a set of computer simulations have been performed. In general, predictions of the theory appear to be in a good agreement with computer simulation results. Confinement and competition between the formation of bonds connecting the fluid particles, and connecting fluid particles and obstacles of the matrix, give rise to a re-entrant phase behavior with three critical points and two separate regions of the liquid-gas phase coexistence.