No Arabic abstract
The structural properties of additive binary hard-sphere mixtures are addressed as a follow-up of a previous paper [S. Pieprzyk et al., Phys. Rev. E 101, 012117 (2020)]. The so-called rational-function approximation method and an approach combining accurate molecular dynamics simulation data, the pole structure representation of the total correlation functions, and the Ornstein-Zernike equation are considered. The density, composition, and size-ratio dependencies of the leading poles of the Fourier transforms of the total correlation functions $h_{ij} (r)$ of such mixtures are presented, those poles accounting for the asymptotic decay of $h_{ij} (r)$ for large $r$. Structural crossovers, in which the asymptotic wavelength of the oscillations of the total correlation functions changes discontinuously, are investigated. The behavior of the structural crossover lines as the size ratio and densities of the two species are changed is also discussed.
An approach to obtain the structural properties of additive binary hard-sphere mixtures is presented. Such an approach, which is a nontrivial generalization of the one recently used for monocomponent hard-sphere fluids [S. Pieprzyk, A. C. Branka, and D. M. Heyes, Phys. Rev. E 95, 062104 (2017)], combines accurate molecular-dynamics simulation data, the pole structure representation of the total correlation functions, and the Ornstein-Zernike equation. A comparison of the direct correlation functions obtained with the present scheme with those derived from theoretical results stemming from the Percus-Yevick (PY) closure and the so-called rational-function approximation (RFA) is performed. The density dependence of the leading poles of the Fourier transforms of the total correlation functions and the decay of the pair correlation functions of the mixtures are also addressed and compared to the predictions of the two theoretical approximations. A very good overall agreement between the results of the present scheme and those of the RFA is found, thus suggesting that the latter (which is an improvement over the PY approximation) can safely be used to predict reasonably well the long-range behavior, including the structural crossover, of the correlation functions of additive binary hard-sphere mixtures.
For binary fluid mixtures of spherical particles in which the two species are sufficiently different in size, the dominant wavelength of oscillations of the pair correlation functions is predicted to change from roughly the diameter of the large species to that of the small species along a sharp crossover line in the phase diagram [C. Grodon, M. Dijkstra, R. Evans & R. Roth, J.Chem.Phys. 121, 7869 (2004)]. Using particle-resolved colloid experiments in 3d we demonstrate that crossover exists and that its location in the phase diagram is in quantitative agreement with the results of both theory and our Monte-Carlo simulations. In contrast with previous work [J. Baumgartl, R. Dullens, M. Dijkstra, R. Roth & C. Bechinger, Phys.Rev.Lett. 98, 198303 (2007)], where a correspondence was drawn between crossover and percolation of both species, in our 3d study we find that structural crossover is unrelated to percolation.
The effective pair potentials between different kinds of dendrimers in solution can be well approximated by appropriate Gaussian functions. We find that in binary dendrimer mixtures the range and strength of the effective interactions depend strongly upon the specific dendrimer architecture. We consider two different types of dendrimer mixtures, employing the Gaussian effective pair potentials, to determine the bulk fluid structure and phase behavior. Using a simple mean field density functional theory (DFT) we find good agreement between theory and simulation results for the bulk fluid structure. Depending on the mixture, we find bulk fluid-fluid phase separation (macro-phase separation) or micro-phase separation, i.e., a transition to a state characterized by undamped periodic concentration fluctuations. We also determine the inhomogeneous fluid structure for confinement in spherical cavities. Again, we find good agreement between the DFT and simulation results. For the dendrimer mixture exhibiting micro-phase separation, we observe rather striking pattern formation under confinement.
The coupling-parameter method, whereby an extra particle is progressively coupled to the rest of the particles, is applied to the sticky-hard-sphere fluid to obtain its equation of state in the so-called chemical-potential route ($mu$ route). As a consistency test, the results for one-dimensional sticky particles are shown to be exact. Results corresponding to the three-dimensional case (Baxters model) are derived within the Percus-Yevick approximation by using different prescriptions for the dependence of the interaction potential of the extra particle on the coupling parameter. The critical point and the coexistence curve of the gas-liquid phase transition are obtained in the $mu$ route and compared with predictions from other thermodynamics routes and from computer simulations. The results show that the $mu$ route yields a general better description than the virial, energy, compressibility, and zero-separation routes.
Multicomponent systems are ubiquitous in nature and industry. While the physics of few-component liquid mixtures (i.e., binary and ternary ones) is well-understood and routinely taught in undergraduate courses, the thermodynamic and kinetic properties of $N$-component mixtures with $N>3$ have remained relatively unexplored. An example of such a mixture is provided by the intracellular fluid, in which protein-rich droplets phase separate into distinct membraneless organelles. In this work, we investigate equilibrium phase behavior and morphology of $N$-component liquid mixtures within the Flory-Huggins theory of regular solutions. In order to determine the number of coexisting phases and their compositions, we developed a new algorithm for constructing complete phase diagrams, based on numerical convexification of the discretized free energy landscape. Together with a Cahn-Hilliard approach for kinetics, we employ this method to study mixtures with $N=4$ and $5$ components. We report on both the coarsening behavior of such systems, as well as the resulting morphologies in three spatial dimensions. We discuss how the number of coexisting phases and their compositions can be extracted with Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and K-Means clustering algorithms. Finally, we discuss how one can reverse engineer the interaction parameters and volume fractions of components in order to achieve a range of desired packing structures, such as nested `Russian dolls and encapsulated Janus droplets.