Ginzburg Criterion for Coulombic Criticality

Abstract

To understand the range of close-to-classical critical behavior seen in various electrolytes, generalized Debye-Hückel theories (that yield density correlation functions) are applied to the restricted primitive model of equisized hard spheres. The results yield a Landau-Ginzburg free-energy functional for which the Ginzburg criterion can be explicitly evaluated. The predicted scale of crossover from classical to Ising character is found to be similar in magnitude to that derived for simple fluids in comparable fashion. The consequences in relation to experiments are discussed briefly.