Department for Theory of Solutions

Since the founding of the Department in 1980 it has been headed by Prof. Myroslav Holovko. The members of the Department include Yurii Kalyuzhnyi, Andrij Trokhymchuk, Igor Protsykevich, Maxym Druchok, Taras Patsagan, Ivan Kravtsiv, Volodymyr Shmotolokha, Taras Hvozd, Ivanna Melnyk, Oleksandr Stepanenko, and Marta Hvozd.

Head of Department – Corresponding member of the NAS Ukraine Myroslav Holovko

Born on October 29, 1943 in the Ivano-Frankivsk region of Western Ukraine.  In 1965 graduated from Ivano-Frankivsk Pedagogical Institute and in 1969 completed his PhD studies at Ivan Franko State University of Lviv. In 1970 obtained a PhD degree, in 1981 – a DrSci degree and in 1985 – the title of Professor. Since 2003 has been a corresponding member of the NAS of Ukraine.

In 1969 M. Holovko began to work at the Lviv department of the Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics of the NAS of Ukraine and since 1990 at the Institute for Condensed Matter Physics of the NAS of Ukraine. He is an author and a coauthor of about 450 publications.

Phone: (032) 2760614; E-mail: holovkoicmp.lviv.ua

Basic research directions

We conduct research in various fields of the theory of liquids and solutions, physics of soft matter and physics of interfaces. Some of the most important of them include

• development of analytical and numerical methods in statistical physics;
• modeling of the effects of solvation and association in electrolyte solutions and polyelectrolytes;
• properties of complex and associating liquids;
• colloidal interactions and polydispersity phenomenon in colloidal systems;
• adsorption of liquids in porous media and and interfacial phenomena;
• corrosion and radiation distruction of the materials;
• intramolecular and intermolecular electron transfer in liquids.

Research objects: electrolyte solutions and molten salts, polar liquids, water and aqueous solutions, polyelectrolyte solutions, globular proteins, selfassociating systems, macromolecular liquds, micelar solutions, microemulsions, polymer solutions, colloids and colloid-polymer systems, anisotropic fluids, liquid crystalline systems, inhomogeneous systems, films, liquids in porous media.

Scientific collaboration

Department has scientific collaboration with various institutions. Among them are Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Paris (France, J.P. Badialli, D. di Caprio), Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (Mexico, O. Pizio), Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences (Warsaw, J. Stafiej), University of Ljubljana (Slovenia, V. Vlachy), Ecole Normale Superieure de Lion (France, W. Dong), Institute for Molecular Science (Okazaki, Japan, F. Hirata), Maria Curie-Sklodowska University (Lublin, Poland, S. Sokolowski), E. Hala Laboratory of Thermodynamics, Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals of the Czech Academy of Sciences (Prague, Czech Republic, I. Nezbeda), Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brigham Young University (Provo, Utah, USA, Doug Henderson),  Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago, USA, group of Darsh Wasan), University of Tennessee (USA, P.T. Cummings), Rutgers University at Newark (USA, P. Piotrowiak).

Teaching

Members of the Department (namely M. Holovko, Yu. Kalyuzhnyi, A. Trokhymchuk) give lectures at the Faculty of Physics of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and the Department of Applied Physics and Nanomaterial Science of Lviv Polytechnic National University. Over the past 10 years 4 PhD theses and 2 DrSci theses have been defended in the Department.

Recent publications

1. I. Kravtsiv, T. Patsahan, M. Holovko and D. Di Caprio. Two-Yukawa fluid at a hard wall: Field theory treatment // J. Chem. Phys. 142, 194708 (2015).
2. Kastelic, M., Kalyuzhnyi, Y.V., Hribar-Lee, B., Dil, K.A., Vlachy, V. Protein aggregation in salt solutions // Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 6766, 112 (2015).
3. Trokhymchuk A., Henderson D. Depletion forces in bulk and in confined domains: From Asakura-Oosawa to recent statistical physics advances. Current Opinion in Colloid and Interface Science, 20, 32 (2015).
4. Druchok M., Holovko M. Structural changes in water exposed to electric fields: A molecular dynamics study // J. Mol. Liq. 969, 212 (2015) .
5. Holovko M., Di Caprio D. Contact theorems for anisotropic fluids near a hard wall. J. Chem. Phys. 142, 014705 (2015).
6. T.V. Hvozd, Yu.V. Kalyuzhnyi. Second-order Barker-Henderson perturbation theory for the phase behavior of polydisperse Morse hard-sphere mixture. Condens. Matter Phys., 18 (1), 13605: 1-13 (2015).
7. J. M. Ilnytskyi, A.Trokhymchuk, M. Schoen. Topological defects around a spherical nanoparticle in nematic liquid crystal: Coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations. J. Chem. Phys., 141, 114903 (2014).
8. Holovko M., Shmotolokha V., Patsahan T. Hard convex body fluids in random porous media: Scaled particle theory, J.Mol.Liq. 189, 30 (2014).
9. Kravtsiv I., Holovko M., Di Caprio D. Maier–Saupe nematogenic fluid interacting with an isotropic and an anisotropic Yukawa potentials: field theory description. Mol. Phys., 111, 844 (2013).
10. Kalyuzhnyi Yu.V.,Docherty H., Cummings P.T. Resummed thermodynamic perturbation theory for central force associating potential: One-patch model.  J. Chem. Phys., 133 , 044502 (2010).
11. Orea P., Melnyk R., Nezbeda I., Trokhymchuk A. Liquid/vapor coexistence and surface tension of the Sutherland fluid with a variable range of interaction: Computer simulation and perturbation theory studies.  J. Chem. Phys., 132,134504: 1-8 (2010).
12. Patsahan O.V., Patsahan T.M., Gas-liquid critical parameters of asymmetric models of ionic fluids, Phys. Rev. E, 81, 031110: 1-10 (2010).
13. Druchok M., Vlachy V. Molecular dynamics study of the hydrophobic 6,6-ionene oligocation in aqueous solution with sodium halides,  Pure and Applied Chemistry,  82, 1943 (2010).
14. Nezbeda I., Melnyk R., Trokhymchuk A. A new concept for augmented van der Waals equations of state,  J. Supercritical Fluids, 55, p.448 (2010).
15. Kalyuzhnyi Yu. V., Vlachy V., Dill K. Solvation of ions in aqueous alkali halide solutions. Can osmotic coeffcients be explained on the basis of the ionic sizes alone? Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 12, 6260 (2010).
16. Ilnytskyi J.M., Patsahan T., Holovko M., Krouskop P., Makowski M. Morphological changes in block copolymer melts due to a variation of intramolecular branching. Dissipative Particles Dynamics Study, Macromolecules , 41,  9904 (2008).
17. Druchok M., Hribar-Lee B., Krienke H., Vlachy V. A molecular dynamics study of short-chain polyelectrolytes in explicit water: Towards the origin of ion-specific effects, Chem. Phys. Lett. 451, 281 (2008).
18. Hlushak S.P., Kalyuzhnyi Yu.V., Cummings P.T.  Phase coexistence in polydisperse athermal polymer-colloidal mixture,  J. Chem. Phys. 128, 154907 (2008).
19. Kalyuzhnyi Yu.V., Protsykevytch I.A., Cummings P.T. Thermodynamic properties and liquid-gas phase diagram of the dipolar hard-sphere fluid, Europhys. Lett. 80, 56002 (2007).
20. A.Trokhymchuk, D.Henderson, A.Nikolov, D.T.Wasan. Computer simulation of macroion layering in a wedge film, Langmuir,  21, 10240 (2005).