Random sequential adsorption of polydisperse mixtures on lattices

TL;DR

This study numerically investigates the kinetics and size distribution of particles adsorbed on lattices during random sequential adsorption, revealing how size distribution width affects coverage and structural correlations over time.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed numerical analysis of polydisperse particle adsorption on lattices, highlighting the influence of size distribution parameters on coverage dynamics and spatial correlations.

Findings

Maximum adsorption rate occurs at a specific time related to monolayer incidence.

Coverage varies with particle size distribution parameters, up to 20% for linear particles.

Adsorbed size distributions initially mirror incident distributions but diverge over time for broad distributions.

Abstract

Random sequential adsorption of linear and square particles with excluded volume interaction is studied numerically on planar lattices considering Gaussian distributions of lateral sizes of the incident particles, with several values of the average and of the width-to-average ratio $w$. When the coverage is plotted as function of the logarithm of time $t$, the maximum slope is attained at a time $t_M$ of the same order of the time $\tau$ of incidence of one monolayer, which is related to the molecular flux and/or sticking coefficients. For various values of the average $\mu$ and $w$, we obtain $1.5\tau < t_M < 5\tau$ for linear particles and $.3\tau< t_M < \tau$ for square particles. At $t_M$, the coverages with linear and square particles are near .3 and .2, respectively. Extrapolations show that coverages may vary with $\mu$ up to 20% and 2% for linear and square particles, respectively, for $\mu\ge 64$, fixed time, and constant $w$. All coverage $\theta$ versus $\log t$ plots have approximately the same shape, but other quantities measured at times of order $t_M$ help to distinguish narrow and broad incident distributions. The adsorbed particle size distributions are close to the incident ones up to long times for small $w$, but appreciably change in time for larger $w$, acquiring a monotonically decreasing shape for $w = 1/2$ at times of order $100\tau$ . At $t_M$, incident and adsorbed distributions are approximately the same for $w \le 1/8$ and show significant differences for $w \ge 1/2$; this result may be used as a consistency test in applications of the model. The pair correlation function $g (r; t)$ for $w = 1/8$ has a well defined oscillatory structure at $10t_M$, with a minimum at $r\approx\mu$ and maximum at $r \approx 1.5\mu$, but this structure is not observed for $w \ge 1/4$.