Rescaled mean spherical approximation for concentrated charge-stabilized colloids

Abstract The rescaled mean spherical approximation (MSA) [J.P. Hansen, J.B. Hayter, Mol. Phys. 46 (1982) 651] which was evaluated to be quite successful for studying the structures of charged colloidal dispersions at low volume fractions was revisited. Contrary to the common understanding in atomic liquids that the Ornstein–Zernike equation supplemented by the MSA closure becomes increasingly accurate at a high volume fraction (which implies the unnecessity of rescaling), it is found here that, even at high volume fractions, the calculated charged colloidal pair correlation function displays a negative value near the minimum contact distance. Both the numerical and analytical methods are applied to remedy this unphysical feature. We confirm that the analytical rescaling scheme proposed by Hansen and Hayter is equally applicable to a concentrated suspension of charge-stabilized colloids.