Solvation Phenomena in Dilute Solutions: Formal, Experimental Evidence, and Modeling Implications
We review the fundamentals underlying a general molecular-based formalism for the microscopic interpretation of the solvation phenomena involving sparingly soluble solutes in compressible media, an approach that hinges around the unambiguous splitting of the species correlation function integrals into short-(finite) and long-ranged (diverging) contributions at infinite dilution, where this condition is taken as the reference system for the derivation of composition expansions. Then, we invoke the formalism (a) to illustrate the well-behaved nature of the solvation contributions to the mechanical partial molecular properties of solutes at infinite dilution, (b) to guide the development of, and provide molecular-based support to, the macroscopic modeling of high-temperature dilute aqueous-electrolyte solutions, (c) to study solvation effects on the kinetic rate constants of reactions in near-critical solvents in an attempt to understand from a microscopic perspective the macroscopic evidence regarding the thermodynamic pressure effects, and (d) to interpret the microscopic mechanism behind synergistic solvation effects involving either co-solutes or co-solvents, and provide a molecular argument on the unsuitability of the van der Waals one-fluid (vdW-1f) mixing rules for the 2 description of weakly attractive solutes in compressible solvents. Finally, we develop thermodynamically consistent perturbation expansions, around the infinite dilution reference, for the species residual properties in binary and ternary mixtures, and discuss the theoretical and modeling implications behind ad hoc first-order truncated expansions.