Wetting transitions in polydisperse fluids

Abstract

The properties of the coexisting bulk gas and liquid phases of a polydisperse fluid depend not only on the prevailing temperature, but also on the overall parent density. As a result, a polydisperse fluid near a wall will exhibit density-driven wetting transitions inside the coexistence region. We propose a likely topology for the wetting phase diagram, which we test using Monte Carlo simulations of a model polydisperse fluid at an attractive wall, tracing the wetting line inside the cloud curve and identifying the relationship to prewetting.