pePC-SAFT: Modeling of polyelectrolyte systems: 1. Vapor–liquid equilibria

A molecular thermodynamic model for polyelectrolyte systems—called pePC-SAFT—is proposed. The effect of charged monomers within the polyelectrolyte chain is explicitly taken into account in the reference term by replacing the hard-chain contribution of the PC-SAFT model by a charged-hard-chain contribution. Moreover, counterion condensation is accounted for to determine the effective number of charges along the polyion as well as of free counterions. The electrostatic contribution of the free counterions is described by a Debye–Hückel term.     

Thermodynamic properties of a hard-core Lennard-Jones fluid from computer simulation and the coupling parameter series expansion

ABSTRACT

The thermodynamic properties of a fluid with an interaction potential consisting in a hard-sphere core plus a Lennard-Jones tail have been obtained by Monte Carlo (MC) NVT simulation as a function of the density along several isotherms. In addition, the liquid–vapour coexistence has been determined by means of histogram-reweighting MC. These data have been used to analyse the performance of perturbation theory. To this end, the first three perturbation terms of the inverse temperature expansion of the Helmholtz free energy have been obtained by means of MC NVT simulations to test the convergence of the perturbation series and to compare with the predictions of the coupling parameter series expansion. Then, the predictions of the latter theory for the thermodynamic properties have been compared with the simulations, revealing the overall excellent performance of this perturbation theory for this model fluid, except in the vicinity of the critical point.     

A Monte Carlo study of the classical two-dimensional one-component plasma

We present results from extensive Monte Carlo simulations of the fluid phase of the two-dimensional classical one-component plasma (OCP). The difficulties associated with the infinite range of the logarithmic Coulomb interaction are eliminated by confining the particles to the surface of a sphere. The results are compared to those obtained for a planar system with screened Coulomb interactions and periodic boundary conditions; in this case the infinite tail of the Coulomb interaction is treated as a perturbation. The exact simulation results are used to test various approximate theories, including a semiempirical modification of the hypernetted-chain (HNC) integral equation. The OCP freezing transition is located at a coupling= e²/k_BT–140.     

Structure of the square-shoulder fluid

The structural properties of square-shoulder fluids are derived from the use of the rational function approximation method. The computation of both the radial distribution function and the static structure factor involves mostly analytical steps, requiring only the numerical solution of a single transcendental equation. The comparison with available simulation data and with numerical solutions of the Percus–Yevick and hypernetted-chain integral equations shows that the present approximation represents an improvement over the Percus–Yevick theory for this system and a reasonable compromise between accuracy and simplicity.     

温稠密物质中不同价态离子分布对X-射线弹性散射光谱计算的影响

在天体物理和惯性约束聚变研究中涉及到的温稠密物质通常包含多种元素的混合,并且每种元素还被电离成多种离子价态,不同价态离子结构及其丰度将直接影响温稠密物质的诊断及其物理性质.同时,从电子结构计算出发来研究宏观物理性质时,还需要考虑温度、密度效应对离子结构的影响.本文从不同价态离子的电子结构计算出发,采用考虑了离子间相互作用的Saha方程获得了稠密环境下的离子丰度,并使用超网链(hypernetted-chain)近似对铝、金以及碳-氢混合物的径向分布函数进行了计算,结合离子周围电子的密度分布,最后获得X-射线汤姆逊散射的弹性散射谱.在X-射线散射谱计算中,计算了温稠密物质中同时存在不同离子价态时的电子结构和径向分布函数,发现在相同的等离子体环境下不同价态离子的径向分布函数和电子结构差别较大.这将对依赖于微观统计过程的物理性质,比如散射光谱,将产生较大的影响.     

Single-Ion Contributions to Activity Coefficient Derivatives, Second Moment Coefficients, and the Liquid Junction Potential

We discuss several interrelated single-ion thermodynamic properties required to calculate the liquid junction potential between two solutions of the same binary electrolyte. According to a previously reported molecular theory of nonuniform electrolyte solutions in nonequilibrium, is determined by the transport numbers of the ions, and by the second moment coefficients H ⁽²⁾ of the charge densities around the ions. The latter may be viewed as the single-ion contributors to the second moment condition of Stillinger and Lovett. For a solution of a single binary electrolyte, we relate the H ⁽²⁾ (R) to the derivatives of the single-ion activity coefficients with respect to the ionic strength. In the light of these results, we examine, in some detail, the role played by the specific short-range interionic interactions in determining . We investigate this matter by means of integral equation calculations for realistic models of LiCl and NaCl aqueous solutions in the 0–1 mol-dm^–3 range. In addition to the hypernetted-chain (HNC) relation, we perform calculations under a new integral equation closure that is a hybrid between the HNC and Percus–Yevick closures. Like the HNC approximation, the new closure satisfies the Stillinger and Lovett condition. However, for the models considered in this study, the two closures predict different dependence of the H ⁽²⁾ and of on the specific part of the interionic interactions.     

Phase stability of the penetrable-square-well model: an integral equation approach

We present an extensive investigation, based on the hypernetted-chain integral equation, of the topology of mechanically stable and unstable regions of the thermodynamic plane for the penetrable-square-well fluid. The results obtained are in qualitative agreement with Monte Carlo numerical simulation [R. Fantoni, A. Malijevský, A. Santos, and A. Giacometti, Europhys. Lett. 93, 26002 (2011)] and confirm the existence of a fluid–fluid transition between thermodynamically metastable phases. Moreover, we were able to investigate regimes where simulation is impractical, and showed that as the width of the attractive well vanishes, the metastable fluid–fluid transition disappears.