Free Energy of a Nonuniform System. I. Interfacial Free Energy

It is shown that the free energy of a volume V of an isotropic system of nonuniform composition or density is given by : NV∫V [f0(c)+κ(▿c)2]dV, where NV is the number of molecules per unit volume, ▿c the composition or density gradient, f0 the free energy per molecule of a homogeneous system, and κ a parameter which, in general, may be dependent on c and temperature, but for a regular solution is a constant which can be evaluated. This...