Calculation of the Gibbs Energy of the Reaction OH-·(H2O)n-1 + H2O = OH-·(H2O)n by the Monte-Carlo Method

The energy, the Gibbs energy of the reaction OH^-·(H₂O) _{n- 1} + H₂O = OH^-·(H₂O) _n are calculated by the Monte-Carlo method with a large canonical ensemble for n = 1, ..., 20. The ion-waternonpair interaction potential was obtained by numerical fitting of calculated Gibbs energy and entropy of (H₂O)_n clusters (n = 1, ..., 5) to experimental ones. A good fit to experiment both of the internal energy and the Gibbs energy can be obtained in terms of a model allowing for nonpair interaction. It is shown that constructing an ion-water interaction potential without allowance for the entropy factor can lead to considerable errors in the Gibbs energy of cluster formation and in the nucleation rate.