Demixing of Lennard-Jones mixtures: An integral-equation approach

The phase separation of a mixture of equal-size particles interacting through a Lennard-Jones potential has been investigated making use of the hypernetted-chain integral equation (HNC). Fair agreement with simulation results, where available, shows that for the system considered the HNC equation can predict with a reasonable accuracy the onset of phase separation. The dependence of the critical point on the strength of the like and unlike interactions has then been studied in order to clarify the segregation mechanism.