Kirkwood-Buff theory three component systems

The Kirkwood-Buff (KB) theory is the most important theory of solutions. This chapter is therefore central to the entire book. We devote this chapter to derive the main results of this theory. We start with some general historical comments. Then we derive the main results, almost exactly as Kirkwood and Buff did, only more slowly and in more detail, adding occasionally a comment of clarification that was missing in the original publication. We first derive the results for any multicomponent system, and thereafter specialize to the case of two-components system. In section 4, we present the inversion of the KB theory, which has turned a potentially useful theory into an actually useful, general and powerful tool for investigating solutions on a molecular level. Three-component systems and some comments on the application of the KB theory to electrolyte solutions are discussed in the last sections. 

The occurrence of all three types of ideality can be demonstrated by the use of Eq. (4.88) from the Kirkwood-Buff theory of solutions. We limit the discussion to a two-component system ... 

The Kirkwood—Buff (KB) theory of solution (often called fluctuation theory) employs the grand canonical ensemble to relate macroscopic properties, such as the derivatives of the chemical potentials with respect to concentrations, the isothermal compressibility, and the partial molar volnmes, to microscopic properties in the form of spatial integrals involving the radial distribution function. This theory allows one to obtain information regarding some microscopic characteristics of mnlti-component mixtures from measurable macroscopic thermodynamic quantities. However, despite its attractiveness, the KB theory was rarely used in the first three decades after its publication for two main reasons (1) the lack of precise data (in particular regarding the composition dependence of the chemical potentials) and (2) the difficulty to interpret the results obtained. Only after Ben-Naim indicated how to calculate numerically the Kirkwood—Buff integrals (KBIs) for binary systems was this theory used more frequently. 

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