Criticality of ionic fluids

The organization of this review is as follows In Section II we describe the theoretical and experimental background of the field. Section HI reviews experimental work on the criticality of ionic fluids. Section IV presents the basic theoretical methods for describing ionic phase transitions at the mean-field level. Results obtained by these techniques are reviewed in Section V. Section VI reviews the theoretical work concerned with the nature of the critical point. The review closes in Section VII with a brief summary and outlook. 

We turn now to theories of ionic criticality that encompass nonclassical phenomena. Mean-field-like criticality of ionic fluids was debated in 1972 [30] and according to a remark by Friedman in this discussion [69], this subject seems to have attracted attention in 1963. Arguments in favor of a mean-field criticality of ionic systems, at least in part, seem to go back to the work of Kac et al. [288], who showed in 1962 that in D = 1 classical van der Waals behavior is obtained for a potential of the form ionic fluids with attractive and repulsive Coulombic interactions have little in common with the simple Kac fluid. 

In conclusion, we see that neither the theoretical nor the experimental understanding of the criticality of ionic fluids is complete. On the basis of the theoretical and experimental developments achieved during the past decade, one can reasonably expect that rapid further progress is imminent. Thus, the study of ionic criticality will remain a field of intense research in the foreseeable future. 

Schroer, W., and Weingartner, H. Structure and criticality of ionic fluids. Pure and Applied Chemistry, 2004, 76, p. 19-28. 

Weingartner, H., Kleemeier, M., Wiegand, S., and Schrber, W. (1995) Coulombic and non-Coulombic contributions to the criticality of ionic fluids - an experiment2d approach, J. Stat. Phys. 78, 169-196. 

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