Order-Disorder structural transition in a confined fluid

TL;DR

This study investigates the structural phase transitions of an anomalous confined fluid using fractal analysis, revealing how temperature influences the order-disorder transition and fractal properties of the contact layer.

Contribution

It introduces a fractal dimension approach to characterize phase transitions in a confined anomalous fluid, linking fractality with structural phases under confinement.

Findings

Fractal dimension decreases with increasing temperature.

Structural transitions are characterized by changes in fractal singularity spectrum.

The system exhibits water-like anomalies and layer formation under confinement.

Abstract

In this paper the amorphous/solid to disorder liquid structural phase transitions of an anomalous confined fluid is analyzed using their local fractal dimension. The model is a system of particles interacting through a two length scales potentials confined by two infinite plates. In the bulk, this fluid exhibit water-like anomalies and under confinement forms layers of particles. The particle distributions of them, present different arrangements related to amorphous/solid phases. Here only the contact layer is analyzed through fractal singularity spectrum. At high densities the structural transition its quantify by the order degree to determine the phases affected by the confinement. This mapping shows that the system as the temperature increased, the fractal dimension decreases, which is consistent with the behavior studying in such systems. This result suggests that under thermodynamic perturbations, an anomalous confined liquid, presents different phase transitions achieving be characterized by its fractality.