Eur. Phys. J. E (2006) 19: 1-4
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/e2005-00056-3

Regular Articles

A van der Waals free energy in electrolytes revisited

Laboratoire de Physique Théorique, Université de Paris-Sud, Unité Mixte de Recherche 8627 CNRS, Bâtiment 210, 91405, Orsay Cedex, France

Received: 4 July 2005
Published online: 27 December 2005

Abstract

A system of three electrolytes separated by two parallel planes is considered. Each region is described by a dielectric constant and a Coulomb fluid in the Debye-Hückel regime. In their book Dispersion Forces, Mahanty and Ninham have given the van der Waals free energy of this system. We rederive this free energy by a different method, using linear response theory and the electrostatic Maxwell stress tensor for obtaining the dispersion force.