The Spatial Entropy of Confined Liquids

Molecular dynamics simulations have been used to investigate the structural changes in confined liquids. The density distribution functions for weakly and strongly interacting liquids were determined and compared to those of a non-interacting system in order to assess the impact of the entropic forces on the equilibrium state of the systems. The effect of the entropic forces was assessed by quantifying the layering on the liquid structure upon confinement. The more pronounced layering obtained for weakly interacting and non-interacting systems indicated that entropic forces are more effective in these systems where an increase in the multiplicity of states does not require a prohibitively high cost in energy.