A new surface tension model based on a thermodynamic analysis on a vapor−liquid surface in
an aqueous concentrated electrolyte solution has been proposed. The relation between the surface
tensions and the osmotic coefficients of electrolyte solutions which are calculated by the Pitzer
equation is established. The surface tensions of 46 single-electrolyte solutions are correlated
with only one parameter and the overall average deviation is 1.22%. On the basis of the
parameters obtained by correlating the surface tensions of single-electrolyte aqueous solutions,
the surface tensions of mixed- and single-electrolyte solutions at different temperatures can
also be predicted with deviations of 1.50%. In all cases investigated, good agreement is observed,
even for the systems containing high concentrations of electrolytes.
The equilibrium as well as nonequilibrium phase behaviors of colloidal dispersions have been investigated using statistical-mechanical theories of fluids and solids in complement with the renormalization-group (RG) theory. It is shown that the osmotic second virial coefficient at the critical point of the fluid-fluid transition varies with the range of attractions and is sensitive to specific forms of the attractive potential in contrast to a common speculation that it remains practically constant. However, for colloids with short-ranged forces, the critical temperature of the fluid-fluid phase transition is well correlated with the range of attractions in good agreement with an earlier empirical correlation based on simulation results. A comparison of the relative positions of the fluid-fluid coexistence curve, freezing, melting, and percolation lines in the phase diagram indicates that the gelation in colloidal systems has significant effects on the equilibrium phase transitions and crystallization, especially when the attractions between colloidal particles are short ranged.
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