A MONTE-CARLO STUDY OF THE COEXISTENCE REGION OF THE RESTRICTED PRIMITIVE MODEL

We report on a Monte Carlo study of the restricted primitive model in the low-temperature low-density region believed to contain the critical point of a first-order phase transition. Using two Monte Carlo techniques, grand canonical Monte Carlo and temperature scaling Monte Carlo, we construct a map of the free energy surface as a function of temperature and density over an extensive range of temperature and density. Our results indicate the existence of a phase transition and allow us to obtain some bounds on the location of the critical point. These results allow us to evaluate various predictions about the location of the transition. © 1990 American Chemical Society.