(379e) Effects of Confinement on Freezing and Melting

The current state of knowledge of the effects of confinement in narrow pores on freezing and melting will be reviewed [1]. Confinement affects the freezing temperature, causing it to increase or decrease depending on the nature of the porous material and the pore shape. In addition, confinement can lead to new surface-driven and confinement-driven phases and transitions. Theses effects are most clearly seen in recent molecular simulation results for pores of ideal geometry (slit-shaped and cylindrical); the limited amount of work on more realistic models of pore networks will also be discussed. Comparisons with experimental results will be shown; the interpretation of the experiments is in general more difficult and controversial, since real porous materials possess complicating features such as connected pores, wall roughness, chemical heterogeneity, etc.

1. C. Alba-Simionesco et al., J. Phys.: Condensed Matter, 18 (2006) R15-R68.