title: Capillary condensation in disordered porous materials: hysteresis versus equilibrium behavior.
abstract: We study the interplay between hysteresis and equilibrium behavior in capillary condensation of fluids in mesoporous disordered materials via a mean-field density functional theory of a disordered lattice-gas model. The approach reproduces all major features observed experimentally. We show that the simple van der Waals picture of metastability fails due to the appearance of a complex free-energy landscape with a large number of metastable states. In particular, hysteresis can occur both with and without an underlying equilibrium transition, and thermodynamic consistency is not satisfied along the hysteresis loop.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique Théorique des Liquides, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 4 Place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kierlik
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Monson
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Rosinberg
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sarkisov
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tarjus