Asymmetric criticality of the osmotic compressibility in binary mixtures

Liquid-liquid criticality in the dielectric constant and refractive index: A perspective

The critical region in the phase diagram of condensed matter systems such as fluids or fluid mixtures is characterized by the anomalous behaviour of specific thermodynamic properties. Here, we discuss the progress of understanding the behaviour of two intimately related properties, the dielectric constant [Formula: see text] and the refractive index n, when approaching the liquid-liquid critical point in binary liquid mixtures. Phenomenological scaling approaches, in particular, complete scaling formulation, are highlighted. In addition, experimental evidence provided by dielectric spectroscopy and optical measurements supporting the asymmetry-related critical features in [Formula: see text] and n in the one- and two-phase regions is assessed. We revisit recent experimental data and point out peculiar patterns of behaviour of polar-polar liquid mixtures as compared to (much more frequently studied) polar-non-polar mixtures. We point the necessity of additional research efforts towards the study of polar-polar mixtures, which would shed light into the influence of (microscopic) system-dependent parameters on asymmetry-related features of liquid-liquid criticality.

Critical universality and asymmetry of ionic solution {iodobenzene + 1-decyl-3-methyl-imidazolium bis(trifluorosulfonyl)imide}

The liquid-liquid coexistence curve, heat capacity in the critical and noncritical regions, and the turbidity in critical one-phase and two-phase regions of the binary solution {iodobenzene + 1-decyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluorosulfonyl)imide ([C₁₀mim][NTf₂])} have been precisely measured. From the data collected in the critical region, the critical exponents α, β, γ and ν, as well as the universal critical amplitude ratios R_B and X were obtained and were shown to agree well with their theoretical values for the 3D-Ising universality class, which further confirmed the 3D-Ising criticality of ionic solutions even in a very low relative permittivity solvent. The coulombic character of the studied system was suggested by the small values of the RPM reduced critical temperature and density. Furthermore, it was found that both the asymmetric behaviors of the diameter of the coexistence curve and the osmotic compressibility could be well described using the complete scaling theory.

Compressible cell gas models for asymmetric fluid criticality

We thoroughly describe a class of models recently presented by Fisher and coworkers [Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 040601 (2016)]PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.116.040601. The crucial feature of such models, termed compressible cell gases (CCGs), is that the individual cell volumes of a lattice gas are allowed to fluctuate. They are studied via the seldom-used (μ, p, T) ensemble, which leads to their exact mapping onto the Ising model. Remarkably, CCGs obey complete scaling, a formulation for the thermodynamic behavior of fluids near the gas-liquid critical point that accommodates features inherent to the asymmetric nature of this phase transition like the Yang-Yang (YY) and singular coexistence-curve diameter anomalies. The CCG_{0} models generated when volumes vary freely reveal local free volume fluctuations as the origin of these phenomena. Local energy-volume coupling is found to be another relevant microscopic factor. Furthermore, the CCG class is greatly extended by using the decoration transformation, with an interesting example being the Sastry-Debenedetti-Sciortino-Stanley model for hydrogen bonding in low-temperature water. The magnitude of anomalies is characterized by a single parameter, the YY ratio, which for the models so far considered here ranges from -∞ to 1/2.

Soluble Model Fluids with Complete Scaling and Yang-Yang Features

Yang-Yang (YY) and singular diameter critical anomalies arise in exactly soluble compressible cell gas (CCG) models that obey complete scaling with pressure mixing. Thus, on the critical isochore ρ=ρ(c), C(μ)≔-Td(2)μ/dT(2) diverges as |t|^(-α) when t∝T-T(c)→0^(-) while ρ(d)-ρ(c)∼|t|^(2β) where ρ(d)(T)=1/2[ρ(liq)+ρ(gas)]. When the discrete local CCG cell volumes fluctuate freely, the YY ratio R(μ)=C(μ)/C(V) may take any value -∞<R(μ)<1/2 but "anticorrelated" free volumes are needed for R(μ)>0. More general decorated CCGs, including "hydrogen bonding" water models, illuminate energy-volume coupling as relevant to R(μ).

Heat capacity singularity of binary liquid mixtures at the liquid-liquid critical point

The critical anomaly of the isobaric molar heat capacity for the liquid-liquid phase transition in binary nonionic mixtures is explained through a theory based on the general assumption that their partition function can be exactly mapped into that of the Ising three-dimensional model. Under this approximation, it is found that the heat capacity singularity is directly linked to molar excess enthalpy. In order to check this prediction and complete the available data for such systems, isobaric molar heat capacity and molar excess enthalpy near the liquid-liquid critical point were experimentally determined for a large set of binary liquid mixtures. Agreement between theory and experimental results-both from literature and from present work-is good for most cases. This fact opens a way for explaining and predicting the heat capacity divergence at the liquid-liquid critical point through basically the same microscopic arguments as for molar excess enthalpy, widely used in the frame of solution thermodynamics.