Theory of liquids and liquid mixtures and of their phase equilibria and interfaces

康奈尔大学的Benjamin Widom得到了理论和计算化学项目的支持，该奖项的目的是通过统计力学和热力学的方法，对液体和液体混合物的能量学和结构，对这种流体经历的相变，以及对液体相间界面的结构和结构转换进行理论研究。一项研究集中在两种类型的润湿转变之间的分界线，其中一系列的一级润湿转变和一个二级润湿转变在“三临界”润湿点连接；并研究当接近该三临界点时线张力的行为。另一项研究侧重于疏水效应。这些研究对科学、技术和社会的许多重要和非常不同的领域产生了广泛的影响。例如，湿润是土壤科学的核心问题；它在工业浮选和分离系统中至关重要；它对肺部在呼吸中的适当行动也是至关重要的。疏水效应在化学和生物学中有许多表现形式。

Benjamin Widom of Cornell University is supported by an award from the Theoretical and Computational chemistry program for the theoretical study, by the methods of statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, of the energetics and structures of liquids and liquid mixtures, of the phase transitions such fluids undergo and of the structures and structural transformations of the interfaces between fluid phases. One study focuses on the borderline between two types of wetting transition, where a range of first-order wetting transitions and one of second-order transitions join at a point of "tri-critical" wetting; and to study the behavior of the line tension as that tricritical point is approached. Another study focuses on hydrophobic effects.The studies have broad impact in many important and very different areas of science, technology and society. For example, wetting is a central concern in soil science; it is crucial in industrial flotation and separation systems; it is also crucial for the proper action for the lungs in respiration. Hydrophobic effects have numerous manifestations throughout chemistry and biology.