| Abstract
| - The domain of validity of a recently proposed method for studying inhomogeneous colloidal mixtures isdiscussed. In this method, bridge functions derived from Rosenfeld's hard-sphere bridge functional are usedin the reference hypernetted chain closure of the Ornstein−Zernike equations, the inhomogeneity being treatedby following the technique of Henderson, Abraham, and Barker. To better assess the accuracy of this method,we present new theoretical and simulation results for the wall−macroparticle potential of mean force indemanding conditions that combine the effect of strong confinement and of very short-range attractions betweenthe colloidal particles. We show that this method satisfactorily predicts an efficient role of very short-rangesolvation forces, in a pseudobinary mixture confined in a slit pore that can accommodate only one bigmacroparticle in the direction normal to the walls.
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