Phase-Separating Solutions

Abstract

Most liquid mixtures are far from ideal. Significant differences in the interaction energies of heterogeneous and homogeneous molecules are characteristic of such solutions. If the interaction energy of homogeneous molecules prevails over that of heterogeneous components, then this solution has higher concentration fluctuations. Additivity of the properties is then broken since the more complex properties of near-order configurations must be considered. A significant difference in the properties of heterogeneous molecules and interaction energies of heterogeneous and homogeneous components causes fluctuation regions to grow in size and this leads to phase-separation of the solution. In order to determine properties of this type of system, fluctuation regions must be taken into account.