The use of a non-spherical reference potential in statistical mechanical perturbation theory

Abstract

A statistical mechanical perturbation theory for the pair correlation function and thermodynamic properties of molecular fluids is presented in which the reference potential function is non-spherical. With this choice the short-range molecular repulsive forces can be properly taken into consideration and attractive forces, such as those resulting from electric moments, treated as the perturbation. Calculations are presented for the first-order perturbation term to the Helmholtz free energy due to quadrupolar forces in models of liquid nitrogen and chlorine, and due to dipolar forces in liquid hydrogen chloride. For these calculations the rigid diatomic model and its modification appropriate to heteronuclear molecules were used for the reference potentials. It is found that the lowest-order perturbation terms here are proportional to the second power of the dipole or quadrupole moments, and not the fourth power as had been found previously using a spherical reference potential function. This second-order dependence on the electric moment is especially important in the case of mixtures, where it leads to an explanation for the occurrence of negative azeotropes in binary mixtures of species with quadrupole moments of opposite sign.