Mean Spherical Model and Structure Factor of Liquid Mercury and Aluminium

A closed form expression for S(k), the structure factor, has been derived, taking the square well potential as a perturbation in the mean spherical model approximation. This expression has been used to calculate the structure factor and radial distribution function, g ( r ), for liquid mercury and aluminium at various temperatures and densities. The very good agreement between theory and experiments suggests that the representation of the attractive tail by a square well potential is a satisfactory one and the concept of pairwise interactions is a useful tool in understanding some of the structural problems of liquid metals.