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Main Authors: Yang, Yafan, Zuo, Zufeng, Wan, Jingyu, Sun, Shuyu, Lau, Denvid
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.20720
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author Yang, Yafan
Zuo, Zufeng
Wan, Jingyu
Sun, Shuyu
Lau, Denvid
author_facet Yang, Yafan
Zuo, Zufeng
Wan, Jingyu
Sun, Shuyu
Lau, Denvid
contents Literature values of disjoining pressure in liquid nanofilms from different molecular simulation methods show significant discrepancies. We demonstrate that these arise from neglecting long-range dispersion interactions and inconsistent definitions of film thickness in the original Peng method. A key insight is that long-range dispersion affects surface tension in a thickness-dependent manner, increasing it at large thickness but suppressing its enhancement at small thickness due to disjoining-pressure-induced normal compression and lateral expansion. This leads to crossover behavior in the surface tension of water nanofilms. Since disjoining pressure is obtained from the derivative of surface tension with respect to thickness, this nontrivial dependence strongly impacts its accuracy. With proper treatment of dispersion interactions and a consistent thickness definition, the revised Peng method agrees with the Bhatt method and yields more accurate Hamaker constants.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_20720
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Resolving Discrepancies in Disjoining Pressure Predictions for Liquid Nanofilms from Molecular Simulations
Yang, Yafan
Zuo, Zufeng
Wan, Jingyu
Sun, Shuyu
Lau, Denvid
Chemical Physics
Literature values of disjoining pressure in liquid nanofilms from different molecular simulation methods show significant discrepancies. We demonstrate that these arise from neglecting long-range dispersion interactions and inconsistent definitions of film thickness in the original Peng method. A key insight is that long-range dispersion affects surface tension in a thickness-dependent manner, increasing it at large thickness but suppressing its enhancement at small thickness due to disjoining-pressure-induced normal compression and lateral expansion. This leads to crossover behavior in the surface tension of water nanofilms. Since disjoining pressure is obtained from the derivative of surface tension with respect to thickness, this nontrivial dependence strongly impacts its accuracy. With proper treatment of dispersion interactions and a consistent thickness definition, the revised Peng method agrees with the Bhatt method and yields more accurate Hamaker constants.
title Resolving Discrepancies in Disjoining Pressure Predictions for Liquid Nanofilms from Molecular Simulations
topic Chemical Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.20720