On the compressibility equation of state for multi-component adhesive hard sphere fluids

The compressibility equation of state (EOS) for a multi-component sticky hard sphere model alternative to Baxter's one is investigated within the mean spherical approximation (MSA). For this model and this closure, as well as for a more general class of models and closures leading to Baxter functions qij(r) with density-independent stickiness coefficients, no compressibility EOS can exist for mixtures, unlike the one-component case (in view of this, an EOS recently reported in the literature turns out to be incorrect). The reason is the failure of the Euler reciprocity relation for the mixed second-order partial derivatives of the pressure with respect to the partial densities. This is in turn related to the inadequacy of the approximate closure (in particular, the MSA). A way out to overcome this drawback is presented in a particular example, leading to a consistent compressibility pressure, and a possible generalization of this result is discussed.