A unified treatment of the equation of state of hard linear bodies

An unified treatment of the equation of state of convex (spherocylinders) and non-convex (dumbells) hard bodies is presented. Comparison of our results with simulation shows very good agreement for diatomics and excellent for triatomics.     

Self-consistent equations of state for hard body mixtures

The self-consistency (S-C) constraints on the solute chemical potential and equation of state are stated and employed to find corrections to thermodynamic functions in the colloidal limit for the most often used equations of state. It is shown that the S-C approach and Henderson's expression for the contact radial distribution functions yield the same correction term in the case of the Boublik—Mansoori—Carnahan—Starling—Leland (BMCSL) equation of state for hard spheres. For hard sphere (and hard convex body) mixtures a new variant of the equation of state and Helmholtz energy is proposed that fulfils better the self-consistency constraints than the frequently used equations. It is shown that the correction term for Δ_{μ 2} in hard convex body mixtures described by improved scaled particle theory differs from that for BMCSL only by the non-sphericity parameter. For the Kolafa—Boublik and modified scaled particle theory versions the correction terms are more complex.     

SAFT-D theory for hard sphere and hard disc chain fluids

SAFT-dimer (SAFT-D) theory is reformulated to yield an improved equation of state for the hard sphere chain fluid. Two sets of the equation of state are proposed by employing Chiew's expressions for the contact values of the m hard sphere site-site correlation function g(σ). Comparison with molecular simulation data shows that the improved SAFT-D equation of state predicts the compressibility factor more accurately than Ghonasgi and Chapman's equation of state. It has been shown that SAFT-dimer theory can be applied readily to fused hard sphere chain fluids by considering the correct value of the effective chain length (m*). SAFT-dimer theory is also extended to the 2-dimensional tangent and fused hard disc chain fluids. For the fused hard disc dimer fluid, the SAFT equation of state is found to be more accurate than the Boublik hard disc dimer equation of state. For tangent hard disc chain fluids, the results obtained from SAFT-dimer theory are compared with Monte Carlo results for 5-mers and with GFD theory for 4-mers, 8-mers and 16-mers.     

Equation of State for Parallel Rigid Spherocylinders

The pair distribution function of monodisperse rigid spherocylinders is calculated by Shinomoto’s method, which was originally proposed for hard spheres. The equation of state is derived by two different routes: Shinomoto’s original route, in which a hard wall is introduced to estimate the pressure exerted on it, and the virial route. The pressure from Shinomoto’s original route is valid only when the length-to-width ratio is less than or equal to 0.25 (i.e., when the spherocylinders are nearly spherical). The virial equation of state is shown to agree very well with the results of numerical simulations of spherocylinders with length-to-width ratio greater than or equal to 2.     

Hard body fluids again: Virial coefficients and equations of state

The table of the virial coefficientsB ₂ throughB ₄ of all hard body fluid models considered so far has been completed by calculating the missing coefficients. Applicability of these coefficients to predicting the thermodynamic behaviour of dense hard body fluids is assessed and certain discrepancies in the data for oblate spherocylinders are found. It is shown that by combining the Padé approximant with an appropriate analytic expression an accurate 3-parameter equation of state results.     

Modified Parsons-Lee theory for fluids of linear fused hard sphere chains

The Parsons-Lee theory has been modified to study the liquid-crystalline phase behaviour of the linear fused hard sphere chain fluids. The modification of the Parsons-Lee theory is based on the application of the so-called effective molecular volume instead of the real molecular volume. This alteration does not mean any change for the Parsons-Lee treatment of the hard convex bodies but does for the non-convex ones. The results of the modified Parsons-Lee theory show very good agreement with simulations not only for the location of the isotropic-nematic phase transition but for the equation of state.     

Equilibrium properties of hard non-sphere fluids

Derivation of the thermodynamic properties of fluids of hard non-spherical molecules of arbitrary symmetry is based on the decoupling approximation. Theoretical expressions are given and calculations made for the equation of state and virial coefficients for hard ellipsoids. These results are compared with Monte Carlo values and show fair agreement in all cases. The theoretical predictions for the equation of state for binary mixtures are compared with the Monte Carlo results for hard spheres and hard prolate spherocylinders. Theoretical expressions for the first order quantum correction to the free energy, pressure and virial coefficients are also given. The quantum effects increase with increase of density and with increase of anisotropy parameter.     

TPT2 and SAFTD equations of state for mixtures of hard chain copolymers

We present the second-order thermodynamic perturbation theory (TPT2) and the dimer statistical associating fluid theory (SAFTD) equations of state for mixtures consisting of hetero-nuclear hard chain molecules based on extensions of Wertheim's theory for associating fluids. The second-order perturbation theory, TPT2, is based on the hard sphere mixture reference fluid. SAFTD is an extension of TPT1 (= SAFT) and is based on the non-spherical (hard disphere mixture) reference fluid. The TPT2 equation of state requires only the contact values of the hard sphere mixture site-site correlation functions, while the SAFTD equation of state requires the contact values of site-site correlation functions of both hard sphere and hard disphere mixtures. We test several approximations for site-site correlation functions of hard disphere mixtures and use these in the SAFTD equation of state to predict the compressibility factor of copolymers. Since simulation data are available only for a few pure copolymer systems, theoretical predictions are compared with molecular simulation results for the compressibility factor of pure hard chain copolymer systems. Our comparisons show a very good performance of TPT2, which is found to be more accurate than TPT1 (= SAFT). Using a modified Percus-Yevick site-site correlation function SAFTD is found to represent a significant improvement over SAFT and is slightly more accurate than TPT2. Comparison of SAFTD with generalized Flory dimer (GFD) theory shows that both are equivalent at intermediate to high densities for the compressibility factor of copolymer systems investigated here.     

Mixtures of hard spherocylinders and hard spheres

Monte Carlo simulations have been performed for equimolar mixtures of hard prolate spherocylinders of length: breadth ratio 2:1 and hard spheres, in the fluid region. Two systems have been studied. In the first the breadth of the spherocylinder was equal to the hard sphere diameter, and in the second system both components were of equal molecular volume.

The compressibility factor, PV/NkT, has been obtained for both mixtures at four reduced densities (packing fractions) from 0·20 to 0·45. The results have been compared with the predictions of several analytical equations appropriate to mixtures of hard convex molecules, and an equation due to Pavlicek et al. was found to be very accurate. The results have been used to calculate the excess volumes of mixing at constant pressure, in an attempt to establish the relative importance of the effects of differences in molecular volume and shape on the thermodynamic properties.

The structural properties of the mixtures have also been investigated by calculating pair distribution functions for the three types of pair interactions present in these mixtures.     

An accurate equation of state of a hard convex body fluid mixture

A method enabling to calculate the contact-point values of the pair correlation function of convex body fluids from a semi-empirical equation of state is presented and the accurate Nezbeda equation of the pure hard convex body fluid is extended to mixtures. Comparison of results for one- and two-component systems with Monte Carlo simulation data shows excellent agreement.     

Structural and thermodynamic properties of a multicomponent freely jointed hard sphere multi-Yukawa chain fluid

The product-reactant Ornstein-Zernike approach, represented by the polymer mean-spherical approximation (PMSA), is utilized to describe the structure and thermodynamic properties of the fluid of Yukawa hard sphere chain molecules. An analytical solution of the PMSA for the most general case of the multicomponent freely jointed hard sphere multi-Yukawa chain fluid is presented. As in the case of the regular MSA for the hard sphere Yukawa fluid, the problem is reduced to the solution of a set of nonlinear algebraic equations in the general case, and to a single equation in the case of the factorizable Yukawa potential coefficients. Closed form analytical expressions are presented for the contact values of the monomer-monomer radial distribution function, structure factors, internal energy, Helmholtz free energy, chemical potentials and pressure in terms of the quantities, which follows directly from the PMSA solution. By way of illustration, several different versions of the hard sphere Yukawa chain model are considered, represented by one-Yukawa chains of length m, where m = 2, 4, 8, 16. To validate the accuracy of the present theory, Monte Carlo simulations were carried out and the results are compared systematically with the theoretical results for the structure and thermodynamic properties of the system at hand. In general it is found that the theory performs very well, thus providing an analytical route to the equilibrium properties of a well defined model for chain fluids.     

Dense and nearly jammed random packings of freely jointed chains of tangent hard spheres

Dense packings of freely jointed chains of tangent hard spheres are produced by a novel Monte Carlo method. Within statistical uncertainty, chains reach a maximally random jammed (MRJ) state at the same volume fraction as packings of single hard spheres. A structural analysis shows that as the MRJ state is approached (i) the radial distribution function for chains remains distinct from but approaches that of single hard sphere packings quite closely, (ii) chains undergo progressive collapse, and (iii) a small but increasing fraction of sites possess highly ordered first coordination shells.     

Equation of state of long chain molecules and rings

An equation of state for long chain molecules has been proposed using statistical associating fluid theory (SAFT). The formalism derived here is based on the assumption that the chain is formed by the pairs of trimers. The equations of state for 48-mers and 192-mers are formulated and compared with Monte Carlo results. The theory has been developed to treat hard sphere molecules with two attraction sites to form a ring molecule. The equations of state for trimer, hexamer and 12-mer ring molecules have been formulated. There is excellent agreement with available Monte Carlo results. Second virial coefficients of tangent chain molecules and ring molecules have been determined numerically and compared with simulation results.     

Topological defects in spherical nematics

We study the organization of topological defects in a system of nematogens confined to the two-dimensional sphere (S2). We first perform Monte Carlo simulations of a fluid system of hard rods (spherocylinders) living in the tangent plane of S2. The sphere is adiabatically compressed until we reach a jammed nematic state with maximum packing density. The nematic state exhibits four +1/2 disclinations arrayed on a great circle. This arises from the high elastic anisotropy of the system in which splay (K1) is far softer than bending (K3). We also introduce and study a lattice nematic model on S2 with tunable elastic constants and map out the preferred defect locations as a function of elastic anisotropy. We find a one-parameter family of degenerate ground states in the extreme splay-dominated limit K_{3}/K_{1}-->infinity. Thus the global defect geometry is controllable by tuning the relative splay to bend modulus.     

Modified equation of state for pure and hard sphere mixtures in mean ionic activity coefficient calculations by mean spherical approximation model

A hard sphere equation of state (EOS) based on tetrakaidecahedron cell geometry (instead of spherical shape) and highly optimized molecular dynamic simulation data is proposed. The EOS is extended to hard sphere mixture and its performance for compressibility factor calculation at different diameter size of hard sphere mixtures by using various mixing rule is compared with Monte Carlo simulation data. The results indicated that for all mixing rules, the proposed EOS has minimum error comparing with computer simulation data. Also the residual prosperities are derived by using the proposed EOS. The residual properties are used in mean spherical approximation model (MSA) to evaluate the mean ionic activity coefficient of aqueous electrolyte solutions. The results are compared with those obtained by similar hard sphere equations of state and it is shown that the proposed EOS has a better performance in predicting the mean ionic activity coefficient.     

An application of cell theory to molecular models of n-alkane solids

Solid phase properties for hard sphere chain molecular models of n-alkanes are calculated using the cell theory, and a numerical method for implementation of cell theory for chain molecules is described. Good agreement with Monte Carlo simulations for solid phase properties is obtained from the theory. By using cell theory for the solid phase and an equation of state for the fluid phase, solid-phase equilibrium can be calculated. The predictions are in quite good agreement with Monte Carlo simulation results. Cell theory is used to assess the impact of an approximate treatment used in earlier work for the effect of the temperature dependence of the molecular flexibility upon the solid phase properties of a hard chain model with a realistic torsional potential.     

RESEARCH NOTE A method for predicting the virial coefficients of hard linear homonuclear molecules

This paper proposes a simple method for predicting the virial coefficients, up to the fifth, for hard linear homonuclear molecules. The method uses the virial coefficients for hard spherocylinders and hard linear tangent spheres to obtain the virial coefficients of linear fused hard spheres. The results are in very good agreement with the known values for the latter kind of molecules. Thus the method is suitable for predictive purposes when virial coefficients are not known, which makes it useful for the derivation of certain equations of state.     

Isotropic fluid phases of dipolar hard spheres

Monte Carlo simulations are used to calculate the equation of state and free energy of dipolar hard sphere fluids at low temperatures and densities. Evidence for the existence of isotropic-fluid-isotropic-fluid phase transitions is presented and discussed. Condensation in the dipolar hard sphere fluid is unusual in that it is not accompanied by large energy or entropy changes. An explanation of this behavior is put forward.