ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the properties of matter in such narrow and often geometrically complex gaps. It shows how confinement, wetting conditions, and disorder may modify the thermodynamics and the kinetics of the vapor–liquid and the liquid–glass transition. The consequences are less important in the case of amorphous polymers which are already in the glassy state. The most detailed information on the effect of confinement in disordered porous media comes from molecular simulation studies, the only ones able to take into account the effect of morphological disorder of the walls. Although the slab geometry is interesting for understanding the fundamentals of capillary condensation, it is too idealized to be a good model of moisture uptake and ageing in powders. Dramatic shifts of the glass transition temperature have been measured, which provide a strong basis for an often invoked mechanism of rubber reinforcement by fillers.
