Soon-Chul Kim

WEIGHTED-DENSITY APPROXIMATION AND ITS APPLICATION TO CLASSICAL FLUIDS

A simple weighted‐density approximation based on both local average and bulk densities is proposed. The weighting function is constructed to agree with that of the hybrid weighted‐density approximation (HWDA) proposed by Leidl and Wagner [J. Chem. Phys. 98, 4142 (1993)] for the homogeneous fluid; it has the advantage of being simpler to apply. The new approximation is applied to predict the homogeneous and inhomogeneous properties of classical fluids. For the homogeneous classical fluids, the new approximation generates the same accurate higher‐order direct correlation functions as those of the HWDA. For the properties of inhomogeneous classical fluids such as the density profiles of hard‐sphere and Lennard‐Jones fluids restricted in spherical cages, the results are in good agreement with the computer simulations, and comparable with those of the HWDA. Through these calculations, the density‐functional perturbation theory based on the second‐order perturbation theory of the uniform liquid has also been ex...

Inhomogeneous structure of penetrable spheres with bounded interactions

The density functional theory (DFT) based on the bridge density functional and the fundamental-measure theory (FMT) have been used to investigate the structural properties of one- and two-component penetrable spheres in a spherical pore. The Monte Carlo simulations have been carried out to compare with the theoretical results. The result shows that at low temperature the FMT functional is better than the DFT based on the bridge density functional and compares well with the computer simulations. At high temperature the DFT based on the bridge density functional is better than the FMT functional. These results suggest the reliable accuracy of the modified Verlet closure for the penetrable spheres at high temperature. However, the accuracy of both the FMT functional and the DFT based on the bridge density functional deteriorates if the packing fraction is increased.

A density functional perturbative approach for simple fluids: the structure of a nonuniform Lennard-Jones fluid at interfaces

A density functional perturbation approximation (DFPT), which is based both on the fundamental-measure theory (FMT) to the hard-sphere repulsion and on the weighted-density approximations (WDAs) to the attractive contribution, has been proposed for studying the structural properties of model fluids with an attractive part of the potential. The advantage of the present theory is the simplicity of the calculation of the weight function due to the attractive contribution. It has been applied to predict the equilibrium particle density distributions and adsorption isotherms of Lennard-Jones fluids at interfaces. The theoretical results show that the present theory describes quite well the adsorption isotherms of a Lennard-Jones ethane in a graphite slit pore as well as the equilibrium particle density distributions of a Lennard-Jones fluid near a planar slit pore.

Hard-sphere Yukawa fluid near a planar slit

A density functional perturbative approximation, which is based on both the weighted-density approximation (WDA) of Tarazona and the density functional approximation of Rickayzen et al., has been employed to predict the density profiles of the hard-sphere attractive Yukawa fluid near a planar slit. The calculated density profiles show that the density functional perturbative approximation is a significant improvement upon those of the modified version of the Lovett–Mou–Buff–Wertheim (LMBW-1), which uses the exact contact value theorem, and compares very well with the computer simulation even for the low temperatures in the vicinity of the liquid–vapor fluid bulk transition.

Structure of a planar electric double layer containing size-asymmetric ions: density functional approach

We have studied the structure of the electrolytes with asymmetries in charge and size near a charged planar electric double layer by a density functional theory. In the present theory, the hard-sphere contribution has been approximated as the direct pair correlation function with the coupling parameter, whereas the electronic contribution has been approximated as the mean-spherical approximation in the bulk phase. This theoretical approach for the size-symmetric and size-asymmetric electrolytes displays a good agreement with the simulation results over a wide range of surface charge densities and electrolyte concentrations. However, the accuracy between the present theory and the simulation results slightly deteriorates for the highly size-asymmetric electrolytes and the multivalent electrolytes. In these cases, the performance of the present theory is comparable to those of the simplified extension of the Poisson–Boltzmann theory and the modified Poisson–Boltzmann theory. The calculated result indicates that the surface charge distribution function, which was introduced as an indicator for studying the charge reversal, layering effect, and surface charge amplification in a planar electric double layer, describes the electronic properties of a planar electric double layer well.

Electric double layer for a size-asymmetric electrolyte around a spherical colloid

We have studied the structure of a size-asymmetric electrolyte on charged colloids by a density functional perturbation theory. The hard-sphere contribution has been approximated as the direct pair correlation function with the coupling parameter, whereas the electronic contribution has been approximated as the mean-spherical approximation in the bulk phase. The calculated results for the ionic density distributions and mean electrostatic potentials are in very good agreement with the computer simulations over a wide range of colloid sizes and electrolyte concentrations. The present theory provides better structural results than the hypernetted-chain equation based on the mean spherical approximation. We have confirmed that the overcharging appears when the counterions are larger than the coions. The overcharging disappears everywhere when the electrostatic repulsion becomes strong enough, while the charge reversal is observed when the coions are larger than the counterions, and the reversal effect appears for a size-asymmetric electrolyte at high surface charge densities. The charge reversal occurs even for the point of zero charge, mainly due to the depletion force between two ions. The present theory is able to provide interesting insights about the charge reversal and overcharging phenomena occurring at the interface.

Molecular dynamics simulation study of self-diffusion for penetrable-sphere model fluids.

Molecular dynamics simulations are carried out to investigate the diffusion behavior of penetrable-sphere model fluids characterized by a finite energy barrier ϵ. The self-diffusion coefficient is evaluated from the time-dependent velocity autocorrelation function and mean-square displacement. Detailed insights into the cluster formation for penetrable spheres are gained from the Enskog factor, the effective particle volume fraction, the mean free path, and the collision frequency for both the soft-type penetrable and the hard-type reflective collisions. The simulation data are compared to theoretical predictions from the Boltzmann kinetic equation and from a simple extension to finite ϵ of the Enskog prediction for impenetrable hard spheres (ϵ→∞). A reasonable agreement between theoretical and simulation results is found in the cases of ϵ∗ ≡ ϵ/k(B)T=0.2, 0.5, and 1.0. However, for dense systems (packing fraction ϕ>0.6) with a highly repulsive energy barrier (ϵ∗ = 3.0), a poorer agreement was observed due to metastable static effects of clustering formation and dynamic effects of correlated collision processes among these cluster-forming particles.

Effect of polymer size and chain length on depletion interactions between two colloids.

A density functional theory based on the weighted density has been developed to investigate the depletion interactions between two colloids immersed in a bath of the binary polymer mixtures, where the colloids are modeled as hard spheres and the polymers as freely jointed tangent hard-sphere chain mixtures. The theoretical calculations for the depletion forces between two colloids induced by the polymer are in good agreement with the computer simulations. The effects of polymer packing fraction, degree of polymerization, polymer/polymer size ratio, colloid/polymer size ratio on the depletion interactions, and colloid-colloid second virial coefficient B2 due to polymer-mediated interactions have been studied. With increasing the polymer packing fraction, the depletion interaction becomes more long ranged and the attractive interaction near the colloid becomes deeper. The effect of degree polymerization shows that the long chain gives a more stable dispersion for colloids rather than the short chain. The strong effective colloid-colloid attraction appears for the large colloid/polymer and polymer/polymer size ratio. The location of maximum repulsion Rmax is found to appear Rmax approximately sigmac+Rg2 for the low polymer packing fraction and this is shifted to smaller separation Rmax approximately sigmac+sigmap2 with increasing the polymer packing fraction, where sigmap2 and Rg2 are the small-particle diameter and the radius of gyration of the polymer with the small-particle diameter, respectively.

Molecular dynamics simulation study of probe diffusion in liquid n-alkanes

We performed molecular dynamics simulations for the probe diffusion and friction dynamics of Lennard-Jones (LJ) particles modelled for methyl yellow (MY) in liquid n-alkanes of C12–C200 at temperatures of 318, 418, 518 and 618 K. Two LJ particles are chosen: MY1 with a mass of 114 g/mol, LJ parameters of σ = 4.0 Å and ϵ = 0.4 kJ/mol, and MY2 with a mass of 225 g/mol, σ = 6.0 Å and ϵ = 0.6 kJ/mol. We observed a clear transition in the power law dependence of MY2 diffusion on the molecular weight of n-alkanes at lower temperatures of 318 and 418 K. The sharp transitions occur near n-dotriacontane (C32). However, no such transition is found for MY1 at all the temperatures and for MY2 at higher temperatures of 518 and 618 K. We also calculated the friction constants of both MY probe molecules in liquid n-alkanes. For the larger probe molecule (MY2), at lower temperatures, a large deviation of slope from the linear dependence of the friction of MY2 on the chain length of n-alkane is observed, which indicates a large reduction of friction in longer chains when compared with the shorter chains, enhancing the diffusion of the probe molecules (MY2).

Depletion interactions in two-dimensional colloid–polymer mixtures: molecular dynamics simulations

The depletion interactions acting between two hard colloids immersed in a bath of polymers, in which the interaction potentials include the soft repulsion/attraction, are extensively studied by using the molecular dynamics simulations. The collision frequencies and collision angle distributions for both incidental and reflection conditions are computed to study the dynamic properties of the colloidal mixtures. The depletion effect induced by the polymer-polymer and colloid-polymer interactions are investigated as well as the size ratio of the colloid and polymer. The simulated results show that the strong depletion interaction between two hard colloids appears for the highly asymmetric hard-disc mixtures. The attractive depletion force at contact becomes deeper and the repulsive barrier becomes wider as the asymmetry in size ratio increases. The strong polymer-polymer attraction leads to the purely attractive depletion interaction between two hard colloids, whereas the purely repulsive depletion interaction is induced by the strong colloid-polymer attraction.