The structure factor and equation of state of hard-sphere fluids

Abstract

In a paper by Verberg et al (2002 Dynamics: Models and Kinetic Methods for Non-Equilibrium ManyBody Systems ed J Karkheck (Dordrecht: Kluwer)) it was shown that the static structure factorS(k) of a hard-sphere fluid plays an important role in the computation of the transportproperties of colloidal suspensions. To perform actual calculations, those authors used asemiempirical form due to Grundke and Henderson which stems out of the Percus–Yevickapproximation. In this work we present calculations of the static structure factor of ahard-sphere fluid within the rational function approximation method (Bravo Yuste et al 1996 Phys. Rev. E 53 4820) which is wholly compatible with the equation ofstate used for the fluid. The Carnahan–Starling equation of state (Carnahanand Starling 1969 J. Chem. Phys. 51 635), the Padé (4, 3) of van Rensburg (1993J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 26 4805) and Sánchez (1994 J. Chem. Phys. 101 7003), the equation ofstate of Malijevský and Veverka (1999 Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 1 4267) and a recent proposalby us (Robles and López de Haro 2003 Europhys. Lett. 62 56) will be explicitlyexamined.