Gas-liquid critical parameters of charged soft dumbbells (CSDs) as function of the site-to-site separation on the dumbbells, $d$, obtained on the basis of molecular dynamics computer simulation are presented. A mean field theoretical description is developed, which explains the results at small and large $d$, respectively. We note that in the limit $d\to 0$ the CSD system exhibits gas-liquid phase separation solely driven by repulsion and dipole-dipole interaction. If the dumbbell bond is eliminated the CSD system becomes similar to the restricted primitive model of ionic fluids with hard core repulsion replaced by soft repulsion. We obtain the gas-liquid critical parameters for this model and discuss their relation to the CSD system.

• Received 24 September 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.87.012311