Phase Transition of Nanoconfined Fluids

The phase transition of fluid mixtures confined in nanoporous media is a significant topic that has a broad range of scientific and engineering applications, especially separation science. However, research on phase transitions of nanoconfined fluid mixtures has been largely computational and relatively slow to gain widespread acceptance in part due to a lack of experimental validation at an appropriate length scale. This research aims to advance the understanding of phase transitions of pure fluids and mixtures in well-defined nanoporous media, through experimental means. Only recently have such systematic experimental investigations become possible at least as a result of advances in calorimetry. Additionally, the experimental results are combined with molecular simulations in order to elucidate the underlying molecular physics. Thus, a more complete understanding of fluid phase behavior in nanopores is expected up to the critical region, leading to a stronger foundation for separation technologies that exploit phase transition in confined space. Links to publications that cite or use the data: Qiu, X., Yang, H., Dejam, M., Tan, S. P. and Adidharma, H. (2021), Experiments on the capillary condensation/evaporation hysteresis of pure fluids and binary mixtures in cylindrical nanopores. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 125(10): 5802-5815. URL: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.0c10840 Qiu, X., Tan, S. P., Dejam, M. and Adidharma, H. (2021), Binary fluid mixtures confined in nanoporous media: Experimental evidence of no phase coexistence. Chemical Engineering Journal, 405: 127021. URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2020.127021