Glass Transition in Confined Geometry

TL;DR

This paper develops a microscopic mode-coupling theory for the glass transition in confined liquids, revealing oscillatory behavior of the transition line due to layering effects between parallel hard walls.

Contribution

It extends mode-coupling theory to confined geometries, incorporating density profiles and structure factors, and predicts oscillatory glass transition lines based on confinement.

Findings

Oscillatory glass transition line as a function of plate distance

Structural layering influences the glass transition

Theory recovers bulk and 2D limits

Abstract

Extending mode-coupling theory, we elaborate a microscopic theory for the glass transition of liquids confined between two parallel flat hard walls. The theory contains the standard MCT equations in bulk and in two dimensions as limiting cases and requires as input solely the equilibrium density profile and the structure factors of the fluid in confinement. We evaluate the phase diagram as a function of the distance of the plates for the case of a hard sphere fluid and obtain an oscillatory behavior of the glass transtion line as a result of the structural changes related to layering.