Thermodynamics, integral equations, pair

An analogy may be drawn between the phase behavior of weakly attractive monodisperse dispersions and that of conventional molecular systems provided coalescence and Ostwald ripening do not occur. The similarity arises from the common form of the pair potential, whose dominant feature in both cases is the presence of a shallow minimum. The equilibrium statistical mechanics of such systems have been extensively explored. As previously explained, the primary difficulty in predicting equilibrium phase behavior lies in the many-body interactions intrinsic to any condensed phase. Fortunately, the synthesis of several methods (integral equation approaches, perturbation theories, virial expansions, and computer simulations) now provides accurate predictions of thermodynamic properties and phase behavior of dense molecular fluids or colloidal fluids [1]. 

The integral equation theory consists in obtaining the pair correlation function g(r) by solving the set of equations formed by (1) the Omstein-Zernike equation (OZ) (21) and (2) a closure relation [76, 80] that involves the effective pair potential weff(r). Once the pair correlation function is obtained, some thermodynamic properties then may be calculated. When the three-body forces are explicitly taken into account, the excess internal energy and the virial pressure, previously defined by Eqs. (4) and (5) have to be, extended respectively [112, 119] so that... 

The so-called product reactant Ornstein-Zernike approach (PROZA) for these systems was developed by Kalyuzhnyi, Stell, Blum, and others [46-54], The theory is based on Wertheim s multidensity Ornstein-Zernike (WOZ) integral equation formalism [55] and yields the monomer-monomer pair correlation functions, from which the thermodynamic properties of the model fluid can be obtained. Based on the MSA closure an analytical theory has been developed which yields good agreement with computer simulations for short polyelectrolyte chains [44, 56], The theory has been recently compared with experimental data for the osmotic pressure by Zhang and coworkers [57], In the present paper we also show some preliminary results for an extension of this model in which the solvent is now treated explicitly as a separate species. In this first calculation the solvent molecules are modelled as two fused charged hard spheres of unequal radii as shown in Fig. 1 [45],... 

A quite different approach to thermodynamics of ionic solutions consists of solving the integral equations that relate the correlation functions and the pair potentials. 

Equations (2.8) together with the closure in Eq. (27) make up a gle nonlinear integral equation for g(r) = 1 + h(r). It can be seen that all pair correlation information about the chranical structure of the polymer enters the theory through 6(k). An important and unique feature of the PRISM theory that should be emphasize is that one has the ability to account for the effect of both Icxal and global structural details, through (kX on the intermolecular packing and thermodynamic properties ctf polymer liquids. 

If go(r), g CrX and g (r) are known exactly, then all three routes should yield the same pressure. Since liquid state integral equation theories are approximate descriptions of pair correlation functions, and not of the effective Hamiltonian or partition function, it is well known that they are thermodynamically inconsistent [5]. This is understandable since each route is sensitive to different parts of the radial distribution function. In particular, g(r) in polymer fluids is controlled at large distance by the correlation hole which scales with the radius of gyration or /N. Thus it is perhaps surprising that the hard core equation-of-state computed from PRISM theory was recently found by Yethiraj et aL [38,39] to become more thermodynamically inconsistent as N increases from the diatomic to polyethylene. The uncertainty in the pressure is manifested in Fig. 7 where the insert shows the equation-of-state of polyethylene computed [38] from PRISM theory for hard core interactions between sites. In this calculation, the hard core diameter d was fixed at 3.90 A in order to maintain agreement with the experimental structure factor in Fig. 5. 

Baxter (1968b) showed that the Ornstein-Zernike equation could, for some simple potentials, be written as two one-dimensional integral equations coupled by a function q(r). In the PY approximation for hard spheres, for instance, the q(r) functions are easily solved, and the direct-correlation function c(r) and the other thermodynamic properties can be obtained analytically. The pair-correlation function g(r) is derived from q(r) through numerical solution of the integral equation which governs g(r) for which a method proposed by Perram (1975) is especially useful. Baxter s method can also be used in the numerical solution of more complicated integral equations such as the hypernetted-chain (HNC) approximation in real space, avoiding the need to take Fourier transforms. An equivalent set of relations to Baxter s equations was derived earlier by Wertheim (1964). 

Initial attempts to use integral equation methods were quite unsatisfactory. Later considerations, including higher order terms, found the agreement to be quite good for pair correlations and related thermodynamic properties between integral equation and simulation results for a central potential. 

V, N, and T are held constant. In this way, the configurational integral Z is calculated. This immediately allows one to calculate the partition function Q for the ensemble (equation (2.2.31)) and thus the thermodynamic functions for the system. In addition, the pair correlation function for the fiuid is obtained in this calculation. 

Fluctuations in thermodynamics automatically imply the existence of an underlying structure that has created them. We know that such structure is comprised of molecules, and that their large number allows statistical studies, which, in turn, allow one to relate various statistical moments to macroscopic thermodynamic quantities. One of the purposes of the statistical theory of liquids (STL) is to provide such relations for liquids (Frisch and Lebowitz 1964 Gray and Gubbins 1984 Hansen and McDonald 2006). In such theories, many macroscopic quantities appear as limits at zero wave number of the Fourier transforms of statistical correlation functions. For example, the Kirkwood-Buff theory allows one to relate integrals of the pair density correlation functions to various thermo-physical properties such as the isothermal compressibility, the partial molar volumes, and the density derivatives of the chemical potentials (Kirkwood and Buff 1951). If one wants a connection between detailed correlations and integrated moments, one may ask about the nature of the wave-number dependence of these quantities. It turns out that the statistical theory of liquids allows an answer to such a question very precisely, which leads to new types of questions. The Ornstein-Zemike equation (Hansen and McDonald 2006), which is an exact equation of the STL, introduces the concept of correlation length which relates to the spatial extension of the density and/or concentration (the latter in the case of mixtures) fluctuations. This quantity cannot be accessed from pure... 

---