An improved iteration method for the calculation of surface tension using the significant structure theory of liquids.

An improved iteration method for calculating the surface tension developed by Chang et al. is presented. To test it, the surface tensions of the following liquids are calculated: A, N(2), CH(4), PH(2), Br(2), C(6)H(6), HgCl(2), and TiCl(4).The calculated results show the present method is an improvement over that of Chang et al. In addition to the change in the energy of sublimation of a molecule in a surface layer, which Chang et al. considered, the less important but not negligible effects on the number of nearest neighbors, eta(i), and the characteristic temperature, theta(i), are now included. eta(i) is proportional to the effective local density, and theta(i) is proportional to the square root of the effective local density. The calculated values fit the experimental data somewhat more closely than those calculated by the original method of Chang et al.