CHEMICAL ASSOCIATION OF SPHERICAL-PARTICLES

Aggregation equilibria of dilute fluids of spherical classical particl es are considered using a formalism derived by Lockett and Wertheim. T he present theory is a simple application of the Lockett-Wertheim theo ry, and uses a set of ring, chain, and star Mayer graphs in the grand canonical ensemble partition function. This analysis is applied to a f luid of hard spheres with a thin exterior square well. Calculated here are the equilibrium constants for n-mer association, the n-mer distri bution, and the fluid pressure. The shape of the n-mer aggregates is i nferred from their individual structure factors. (C) 1997 American Ins titute of Physics.