Dresden 2014 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 18: Complex Fluids and Soft Matter (joint DY/CPP/BP)

BP 18.7: Talk

Tuesday, April 1, 2014, 11:15–11:30, ZEU 118

Molecular simulation methods to compute interfacial free energies — •Ronald Benjamin and Juergen Horbach — Theoretical Physics II, Heinrich-Heine Universitaet, 40225 Duesseldorf, Germany

Knowledge of interfacial free energies are crucial to understanding physical phenomena such as wetting and nucleation. In this talk we discuss several ways to extract this quantity for wall-liquid and wall-crystal interfaces. Chiefly, we discuss a new thermodynamic integration scheme developed to determine the interfacial free energy and compare it to a non-equilibrium work method and a Gibb's-Duhem type of approach known as "Gibb's-Cahn integration".

We also extended our thermodynamic integration scheme to obtain the excess free energy of a supercooled liquid in contact with amorphous walls having the same structure as the liquid. Our results shed new light on the thermodynamic behavior of supercooled liquids and help explain their slowing down in the presence of such rough walls.