Lattice density functional for colloid-polymer mixtures: Multi-occupancy versus Highlander version

TL;DR

This paper develops and compares two lattice density functional theories for colloid-polymer mixtures, revealing their phase diagram topology and transition behaviors.

Contribution

It introduces a multi-occupancy based functional and a Highlander model, providing a detailed comparison for lattice colloid-polymer systems.

Findings

Both models predict similar phase diagram topology.

Identification of a tricritical point separating transition types.

Rapid broadening of density jump at high polymer fugacity.

Abstract

We consider a binary mixture of colloid and polymer particles with positions on a simple cubic lattice. Colloids exclude both colloids and polymers from nearest neighbor sites. Polymers are treated as effective particles that are mutually non-interacting, but exclude colloids from neighboring sites; this is a discrete version of the (continuum) Asakura-Oosawa-Vrij model. Two alternative density functionals are proposed and compared in detail. The first is based on multi-occupancy in the zero-dimensional limit of the bare model, analogous to the corresponding continuum theory that reproduces the bulk fluid free energy of free volume theory. The second is based on mapping the polymers onto a multicomponent mixture of polymer clusters that are shown to behave as hard cores; the corresponding (Highlander) property of the extended model in strong confinement permits direct treatment with lattice fundamental measure theory. Both theories predict the same topology for the phase diagram with a continuous fluid-fcc freezing transition at low polymer fugacity and, upon crossing a tricritical point, a first-order freezing transition for high polymer fugacities with rapidly broadening density jump.