The isochoric heat capacity of a metastable Lennard-Jones fluid

• Published in: Chemical physics letters 2007-10, Vol.447 (4), p.236-240
• Main Authors: Baidakov, V.G., Protsenko, S.P., Kozlova, Z.R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0009-2614; 1873-4448
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cplett.2007.09.039

The isochoric heat capacity of the fluid passes through a minimum and continues to increase when approaching the spinodal (dashed-dotted lines). The article presents the results of molecular-dynamics calculations of the isochoric heat capacity, c v , and the ( p, ρ, T) – properties of the Lennard-Jones fluid in the region of liquid–gas phase transition in stable and metastable states. The system under investigation contains 2048 particles, the cut-off radius of the potential is chosen equal to 6.78 σ. The results of computations of the ( p, ρ, T) – properties have been used to approximate the location of the spinodal. Values of c v have been determined along the gas and the liquid branches of the spinodal. A thermodynamic relation that determines the value of c v on the spinodal in terms of derivatives with respect to temperature of the entropy, pressure and specific volume along the spinodal has been obtained. It is shown that molecular-dynamics data are in agreement with the results of the thermodynamic analysis.