title: Computing excess functions of ionic solutions: the smaller-ion shell model versus the primitive model. 2. Ion-size parameters.
abstract: A recent Monte Carlo (MC) simulation study of the primitive model (PM) of ionic solutions ( Abbas, Z. et al. J. Phys. Chem. B 2009 , 113 , 5905 ) has resulted in an extensive "mapping" of real aqueous solutions of 1-1, 2-1, and 3-1 binary electrolytes and a list of "recommended ionic radii" for many ions. For the smaller cations, the model-experiment fitting process gave much larger radii than the respective crystallographic radii, and those cations were therefore claimed to be hydrated. In Part 1 (DOI 10.1021/ct5006938 ) of the present work, the above study for the unrestricted PM - dubbed MC-UPM - has been confronted with the Smaller-ion Shell (SiS) treatment ( Fraenkel, D. Mol. Phys. 2010 , 108 , 1435 ), or "DH-SiS", by comparing the range and quality of model-experiment fits of the mean ionic activity coefficient as a function of ionic concentration. Here I compare the ion-size parameters (ISPs) of "best fit" of the two models and argue that since ISPs derived from DH-SiS are identical with (or close to) crystallographic or thermochemical ionic diameters for both cations and anions, and they do not depend on the counterion - they are more reliable, as physicochemical entities, than the PM-derived "recommended ionic radii".
authors.affiliation: Eltron Research & Development Inc., 4600 Nautilus Court South, Boulder, Colorado 80301-3241, United States.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fraenkel