Volume 49

Phase Transitions and Kinetics of Vapour Adsorption on Mesoporous Silica Zhuan-Tao He, Chun-Mei Wu, Wei Zhang, You-Rong Li

Abstract

To investigate the phase transitions during adsorption and kinetics of vapor adsorption on mesoporous silica, a series of molecular simulations are conducted in this work. The results provide new insights into the formation of liquid bridges and the growth of cavitation bubbles. The liquid is in a metastable state during desorption, with evaporation potentially occurring through meniscus retreat or cavitation. Spontaneous formation of tiny bubbles is observed in the liquid phase. multiple tiny bubbles often form in proximity, indicating their interdependence. Eventually, as evaporation continues to increase, these bubbles coalesces into ones, initiating the nucleation mechanism for the liquid-to-vapor transition of a metastable liquid.

Keywords phase transitions, liquid bridge, cavitation, thermodynamics