Density functional theory for crystal-liquid interfaces of Lennard-Jones fluid.

A density functional approach is presented to describe the crystal-liquid interfaces and crystal nucleations of Lennard-Jones fluid. Within the theoretical framework, the modified fundamental measure theory is applied to describe the free energy functional of hard sphere repulsion, and the weighted density method based on first order mean spherical approximation is used to describe the free energy contribution arising from the attractive interaction. The liquid-solid equilibria, density profiles within crystal cells and at liquid-solid interfaces, interfacial tensions, nucleation free energy barriers, and critical cluster sizes are calculated for face-centered-cubic and body-centered-cubic nucleus. Some results are in good agreement with available simulation data, indicating that the present model is quantitatively reliable in describing nucleation thermodynamics of Lennard-Jones fluid.