Thermodynamic properties of the fluid, fcc, and bcc phases of monodisperse charge-stabilized colloidal suspensions within the Yukawa model

Abstract

The thermodynamic properties of the Yukawa model for colloidal suspensions are determined theoretically from the Rogers-Young integral equation for the fluid phase and from a recently introduced van der Waals-like theory for the solid phases. Very good agreement with the Monte Carlo simulations of Meijer and Frenkel [J. Chem. Phys. 94, 2269 (1991)] is found for both the fluid and the (fcc-bcc) solid phases. The location of the two-phase coexistences, however, is shown to involve such small free-energy and density changes that no definite statements about the phase diagram are possible within the present accuracy.