localized at (one of) the walls. The relation of this interface localization transition to wetting phenomena is discussed. Finally, an outlook to related phenomena is given, such as the effects of confinement in cylindrical pores on the phase behavior, and more complicated ordering phenomena (lamellar mesophases of block copolymers or nematic phases of liquid crystals under confinement).

We study the structural and dynamic properties of a polymer melt in the vicinity of an adhesive solid substrate by means of Molecular Dynamics simulation at various degrees of surface adhesion. The properties of the individual polymer chains are examined as a function of the distance to the interface and found to agree favorably with theoretical predictions. Thus, the adsorbed amount at the adhesive surface is found to scale with the macromolecule length as Γ is proportional to √N, regardless of the adsorption strength. For chains within the range of adsorption we analyze in detail the probability size distributions of the various building blocks: loops, tails and trains, and find that loops and tails sizes follow power laws while train lengths decay exponentially thus confirming some recent theoretical results. The chain dynamics as well as the monomer mobility are also investigated and found to depend significantly on the proximity of a given layer to the solid adhesive surface with onset of vitrification for sufficiently strong adsorption.

Phase separation of colloid-polymer mixtures, described by the Asakura-Oosawa (AO) model, confined in a thin slit pore is studied by grand-canonical Monte Carlo simulation. While one wall is a hard wall for both particles, at the other wall there acts an additional repulsive potential on the colloids only. Varying the strength of this potential, a crossover from capillary condensation to an interface localization transition is found. The latter occurs under conditions where in the bulk almost complete phase separation has occurred.

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