DENSITY FUNCTIONAL THEORY FOR FREEZING OF A BINARY HARD-SPHERE LIQUID

Our recently proposed effective liquid free energy model (ELFEM) density functional theory is extended to nonuniform binary systems. The theory is based on mapping the excess free energy of a nonuniform binary system onto that of an effective binary liquid. In the uniform density limit, the theory is required to reproduce the known properties of the liquid. The present theory is applied to the freezing of a binary hard sphere liquid into a substitutionally disordered fee solid. Comparisons with previous density functional investigations and recent computer simulations are made. © 1990 American Institute of Physics.