Application of Dynamic Mean Field Theory to Linear Pores With Inkbottle and Side Stream Pore Structures

This work is motivated by recent results for adsorption of nitrogen in porous silicon (PSi) that show surprising behavior featuring, for instance, desorption from mesopores at unexpectedly high gas pressure. Much of the behavior is apparently inconsistent with the known adsorption thermodynamics for fluids confined in pores which have the geometry that has been assumed for PSi. In order to investigate a possible role for dynamics in the observed behavior we have carried out a study of several kinds of linear pore geometries using dynamic mean field theory. The geometries include inkbottle pores and sidestream pore structures as well as pores closed at one end. Several new dynamic mechanisms of capillary condensation and evaporation emerge in this work, including a surprising nucleation phenomenon for pores closed at one end.