Solvation thermodynamics: Theory and applications

Potential distribution and coupling parameter theories are combined to interrelate previous solvation thermodynamic results and derive several new expressions for the solvent reorganization energy at both constant volume and constant pressure. We further demonstrate that the usual decomposition of the chemical potential into noncompensating energetic and entropic contributions may be extended to obtain a Gaussian fluctuation approximation for the chemical potential plus an exact cumulant expansion for the remainder. These exact expressions are further related to approximate first-order thermodynamic perturbation theory predictions and used to obtain a coupling-parameter integral expression for the sum of all higher-order terms in the perturbation series. The results are compared with the experimental global solvation thermodynamic functions for xenon dissolved in n-hexane and water (under ambient conditions). These comparisons imply that the constant-volume solvent reorganization energy has a magnitude of at most ∼kT in both experimental solutions. The results are used to extract numerical values of the solute-solvent mean interaction energy and associated fluctuation entropy directly from experimental solvation thermodynamic measurements.