Predictive density gradient theory¶
Predictive density gradient theory (pDGT) is an efficient approach for the prediction of surface tensions, which is derived from non-local DFT, see Rehner et al. (2018). A gradient expansion is applied to the weighted densities of the Helmholtz energy functional to second order as well as to the Helmholtz energy density to first order.
Weighted densities (in non-local DFT) are determined from
These convolutions are time-consuming calculations. Therefore, these equations are simplified by using a Taylor expansion around
In the convolution integrals, the integration over angles can now be performed analytically for the spherically symmetric weight functions
with the weight constants
The resulting weighted densities can be split into a local part
The second simplification is the expansion of the reduced residual
Helmholtz energy density
The Helmholtz energy functional (which was introduced in the section about the Euler-Lagrange equation) then reads
with the density dependent influence parameter
and the local Helmholtz energy density
For pure components, as derived in the original publication, the surface tension can be calculated from the surface excess grand potential per area according to
Thus, no iterative solver is necessary to calculate the surface tension of pure components, which is a major advantage of pDGT. Finally, the density profile can be calculated from