Computer simulation and replica Ornstein-Zernike integral equation studies of a hard-sphere dipolar fluid adsorbed into disordered porous media

By means of extensive grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations and replica Ornstein-Zernike integral equation calculations, we explore the thermodynamics and dielectric behaviour of a dipolar fluid confined in disordered matrices. Different matrix topologies are modelled using, on the one hand, quenched hard-sphere configurations and, on the other, randomly positioned spheres. This illustrates the influence of the pore size and shape on the properties of the adsorbed fluid. For the same purpose, various sizes of the matrix particles have been considered. The integral equation calculations in the hypernetted chain approximation agree quantitatively with the simulation results. As in other studies on quenched disorder, one observes that the effect of confinement when considering hard-sphere matrices is rather limited, exhibiting however a tendency to facilitate the transition to ferroelectric states, as well as favouring the gas-liquid transition. Additionally, one observes that the sensitivity of the fluid properties to changes in the size of the matrix particles is considerably larger when these are randomly positioned.