Inherent Structures and Kauzmann Temperature of Confined Liquids

Abstract

Calculations of the thermodynamical properties of a supercooled liquid confined in a matrix are performed with an inherent structure analysis. The liquid entropy is computed by means of a thermodynamical integration procedure. The contributions to the free energy of the liquid can be decoupled also in confinement in the configurational and the vibrational part. We show that the vibrational entropy can be calculated in the harmonic approximation as in the bulk case. The Kauzmann temperature of the confined system is estimated from the behavior of the configurational entropy.

5 pages, 4 figures. To be published in Phys. Rev. E