Monte Carlo simulation of vapor-liquid equilibrium and critical asymmetry of square-well dimer fluid

The critical behavior of square-well dimer fluid has been investigated using grand canonical ensemble Monte Carlo simulations combined with a histogram reweighting technique, hyper-parallel tempering and finite-size scaling. The critical temperature and density obtained are T(c)*=1.5495±0.0009 and ρ(c)*=0.1473±0.0007, which are 2.5% lower and 5.2% higher than previous results. Coexistence curves both near to and far from the critical point were obtained. The vapor-liquid equilibrium data far from the critical point are consistent with previous results. Simulation results show that the contribution of |t|(1-α) to the coexistence diameter of square-well dimer fluid dominates the critical behavior and the contribution of |t|(2β) is larger than for a hard-core square-well fluid.     

Molecular simulation study of effect of molecular association on vapor-liquid interfacial properties

Vapor-liquid interfacial properties of square-well associating fluids are studied via transition-matrix Monte Carlo simulation. Results for one-site and two-site association models are presented. Coexistence properties, surface tension, cluster distribution, density profile, and orientation profile are presented. Molecular association affects the interfacial properties and cluster fractions more than it affects the bulk densities. We observe that the surface tension exhibits a maximum with respect to association strength. This behavior is in agreement with the recent study of Peery and Evans for one site system using a square-gradient approach.     

Surface tension and vapor-liquid phase coexistence of confined square-well fluid

Phase equilibria of a square-well fluid in planar slit pores with varying slit width are investigated by applying the grand-canonical transition-matrix Monte Carlo (GC-TMMC) with the histogram-reweighting method. The wall-fluid interaction strength was varied from repulsive to attractive such that it is greater than the fluid-fluid interaction strength. The nature of the phase coexistence envelope is in agreement with that given in literature. The surface tension of the vapor-liquid interface is calculated via molecular dynamics simulations. GC-TMMC with finite size scaling is also used to calculate the surface tension. The results from molecular dynamics and GC-TMMC methods are in very good mutual agreement. The vapor-liquid surface tension, under confinement, was found to be lower than the bulk surface tension. However, with the increase of the slit width the surface tension increases. For the case of a square-well fluid in an attractive planar slit pore, the vapor-liquid surface tension exhibits a maximum with respect to wall-fluid interaction energy. We also report estimates of critical properties of confined fluids via the rectilinear diameter approach.     

Molecular dynamical calculations on the viscosity of a square-well fluid

The coefficient of viscosity for a square-well fluid is calculated by molecular dynamics as a function of the well-depth for densities up to the region of the fluid-solid phase transition. The inclusion of an attractive contribution in the intermolecular potential has a profound influence on the behaviour of the viscosity coeffient and is also responsible for the qualitative correspondence with real systems which has been found for densities above the critical one.     

A study of square-well statistical associating fluid theory approximations

Six square-well (SW) statistical associating fluid theory (SAFT) models, fitted to the experimental saturated liquid volume and saturated vapor pressure for pure n-alkanes, are analyzed for predicting the coexisting densities, second virial coefficients, and binary phase equilibria. The models that result in low values of the segment energy and weak molecular weight dependence of the parameters are found to be more accurate for real fluids. The inclusion of the dimer structure in the SW chain term seems to produce no significant benefit for representing real substances.     

On the long-range corrections to computer simulation results for the Lennard-Jones vapor-liquid interface

The long-range corrections (LRCs) to the configurational energy have been taken into consideration in the Monte Carlo simulation of the vapor-liquid interface for a pure Lennard-Jones (LJ) fluid. The simulated bulk densities agree satisfactorily with those obtained from the Gibbs ensemble method, and the simulated surface tension values agree reasonably well with those reported in the literature for a larger number of molecules and a larger cut-off distance. To compare the influence of the potential forms on the simulation results, a truncated LJ potential, and a shifted and truncated LJ potential have been examined. Although the bulk densities and surface tensions calculated for different model fluids are strongly affected by the LRC, the different potentials essentially lead to similar density values and similar surface tension values when the respective calculated values are compared on the basis of a reduced temperature scale.     

Molecular dynamics simulation studies of a complex fluid -solid interface - the benzene-alkane-graphite system

Interfaces between solid surfaces and solutions are of considerable scientific as well as technological interest, in particular in the context of the adsorption and the formation and organization of molecular films. The realistic modeling of such complex interfaces on the molecular scale is an important testing ground for simulation techniques. Here we focus on the benzene-alkane-graphite interface as an example of the above class of systems, including surface induced segregation, adsorption, and structural aspects of the graphite-solution interface.     

Molecular dynamics simulation of the water|nitrobenzene interface

The structure and dynamics of the neat water|nitrobenzene liquid|liquid interface are studied at 300 K using molecular dynamics computer simulations. The water is modeled using the flexible SPC potential, and the nitrobenzene is modeled using an empirically determined nitrobenzene potential energy function. Although nitrobenzene is a polar liquid with a large dielectric constant, the structure of the interface is similar to other water|non-polar organic liquid interfaces. Among the main structural features we describe are an enhancement of interfacial water hydrogen bonds, the specific orientation of water dipoles and nitrobenzene molecules, and a rough surface that is locally sharp. Surface roughness is also characterized dynamically. The dynamics of molecular reorientation are shown to be only mildly modified at the interface. The effect due to the polarizable many-body potential energy functions of both liquids is investigated and is found to affect only mildly the above results.     

Liquid-vapor interface of square-well fluids of variable interaction range

Properties of the liquid-vapor interface of square-well fluids with ranges of interaction lambda=1.5, 2.0, and 3.0 are obtained by Monte Carlo simulations and from square-gradient theories that combine the Carnahan-Starling equation of state for hard spheres with the second and third virial coefficients. The predicted surface tensions show good agreement with the simulation results for lambda=2 and for lambda=3 in a temperature range reasonably close to the critical point, 0.8相似文献   

Molecular simulation of the shear viscosity and the self-diffusion coefficient of mercury along the vapor-liquid coexistence curve

In earlier work [G. Raabe and R. J. Sadus, J. Chem. Phys. 119, 6691 (2003)] we reported that the combination of an accurate two-body ab initio potential with an empirically determined multibody contribution enables the prediction of the phase coexistence properties, the heats of vaporization, and the pair distribution functions of mercury with reasonable accuracy. In this work we present molecular dynamics simulation results for the shear viscosity and self-diffusion coefficient of mercury along the vapor-liquid coexistence curve using our empirical effective potential. The comparison with experiment and calculations based on a modified Enskog theory shows that our multibody contribution yields reliable predictions of the self-diffusion coefficient at all densities. Good results are also obtained for the shear viscosity of mercury at low to moderate densities. Increasing deviations between the simulation and experimental viscosity data at high densities suggest that not only a temperature-dependent but also a density-dependent multibody contribution is necessary to account for the effect of intermolecular interactions in liquid metals. An analysis of our simulation data near the critical point yields a critical exponent of beta = 0.39, which is identical to the value obtained from the analysis of the experimental saturation densities.     

Molecular simulation study of temperature effect on ionic hydration in carbon nanotubes

Molecular dynamics simulations have been performed to investigate the hydration of Li(+), Na(+), K(+), F(-), and Cl(-) inside the carbon nanotubes at temperatures ranging from 298 to 683 K. The structural characteristics of the coordination shells of ions are studied, including the ion-oxygen radial distribution functions, the coordination numbers, and the orientation distributions of the water molecules. Simulation results show that the first coordination shells of the five ions still exist in the nanoscale confinement. Nevertheless, the first coordination shell structures of cations change more significantly than those of anions because of the preferential orientation of the water molecules induced by the carbon nanotube. The first coordination shells of cations are considerably less ordered in the nanotube than in the bulk solution, whereas the change of the first coordination shell structures of the anions is minor. Furthermore, the confinement induces the anomalous behavior of the coordination shells of the ions with temperature. The first coordination shell of K(+) are found to be more ordered as the temperature increases only in the carbon nanotube with the effective diameter of 1.0 nm, implying the enhancement of the ionic hydration with temperature. This is contrary to that in the bulk solution. The coordination shells of the other four ions do not have such behavior in the carbon nanotube with the effective diameter ranging from 0.73 to 1.00 nm. The easier distortion of the coordination shell of K(+) and the match of the shell size and the nanotube size may play roles in this phenomenon. The exchange of water molecules in the first coordination shells of the ions with the solution and the ion diffusion along the axial direction of the nanotube are also investigated. The mobility of the ions and the stability of the coordination shells are greatly affected by the temperature in the nanotube as in the bulk solutions. These results help to understand the biological and chemical processes at the high temperature.     

Vapor-liquid equilibrium and critical behavior of the square-well fluid of variable range: a theoretical study

The vapor-liquid phase behavior and the critical behavior of the square-well (SW) fluid are investigated as a function of the interaction range, lambdain [1.25, 3], by means of the self-consistent Ornstein-Zernike approximation (SCOZA) and analytical equations of state based on a perturbation theory [A. L. Benavides and F. del Rio, Mol. Phys. 68, 983 (1989); A. Gil-Villegas, F. del Rio, and A. L. Benavides, Fluid Phase Equilib. 119, 97 (1996)]. For this purpose the SCOZA, which has been restricted up to now to a few model systems, has been generalized to hard-core systems with arbitrary interaction potentials requiring a fully numerical solution of an integro-partial differential equation. Both approaches, in general, describe well the liquid-vapor phase diagram of the square-well fluid when compared with simulation data. SCOZA yields very precise predictions for the coexistence curves in the case of long ranged SW interaction (lambda>1.5), and the perturbation theory is able to predict the binodal curves and the saturated pressures, for all interaction ranges considered if one stays away from the critical region. In all cases, the SCOZA gives very good predictions for the critical temperatures and the critical pressures, while the perturbation theory approach tends to slightly overestimate these quantities. Furthermore, we propose analytical expressions for the critical temperatures and pressures as a function of the square-well range.     

Extended study of molecular dynamics simulation of homogeneous vapor-liquid nucleation of water

Using the simple point charge/extended water model, we performed molecular dynamics simulations of homogeneous vapor-liquid nucleation at various values of temperature T and supersaturation S, from which the nucleation rate J, critical nucleus size n(*), and the cluster formation free energy DeltaG were derived. As well as providing lots of simulation data, the results were compared with theories on homogeneous nucleation, including the classical, semi-phenomenological, and scaled models, but none of these gave a satisfactory explanation for our results. It was found that two main factors made the theories fail: (1) The average cluster structure including the nonspherical shape and the core structure that is not like the bulk liquid and (2) the forward rate which is larger than assumed by the theories by about one order of magnitude. The quantitative evaluation of these factors is left for future investigations.     

Viscosity for a dense fluid of square-well rough spheres

Shear viscosity is calculated for a dense fluid of square-well rough spheres. The results are compared with calculated shear viscosities for the familiar hard-sphere, square-well and rough-sphere models.     

Molecular dynamics simulation of a water/metal interface

First results of a molecular dynamics study of a water/metal interface, lasting 3.3 ps at an average temperature of 294 K, are reported. The basic periodic box contains 216 water molecules and a crystal slab of 550 platinum atoms with (100) surface planes. A combination of a Lennard-Jones potential between centers of mass and a Coulomb potential arising from dielectric interactions of the water charge distribution with the metal is employed for the water-wall interaction, the ST2 model for the water-water, and a nearest-neighbour harmonic potential for the platinum-platinum interactions. Considerable adsorption at the interface together with a drastic change of the water structure is observed.     

Molecular simulation of hydrophobin adsorption at an oil-water interface

Hydrophobins are small, amphiphilic proteins expressed by strains of filamentous fungi. They fulfill a number of biological functions, often related to adsorption at hydrophobic interfaces, and have been investigated for a number of applications in materials science and biotechnology. In order to understand the biological function and applications of these proteins, a microscopic picture of the adsorption of these proteins at interfaces is needed. Using molecular dynamics simulations with a chemically detailed coarse-grained potential, the behavior of typical hydrophobins at the water-octane interface is studied. Calculation of the interfacial adsorption strengths indicates that the adsorption is essentially irreversible, with adsorption strengths of the order of 100 k(B)T (comparable to values determined for synthetic nanoparticles but significantly larger than small molecule surfactants and biomolecules). The protein structure at the interface is unchanged at the interface, which is consistent with the biological function of these proteins. Comparison of native proteins with pseudoproteins that consist of uniform particles shows that the surface structure of these proteins has a large effect on the interfacial adsorption strengths, as does the flexibility of the protein.     

Effective surface tension for capillary fluctuations at the vapor-liquid interface

Thermal fluctuations of the surface of argon-like cluster are considered. Data obtained by molecular dynamics method are used to find effective surface tension for the capillary component of fluctuations, which characterizes the deviation of Fourier spectrum observed in numerical experiment from the spectrum of macroscopic capillary waves. The variational method was used to solve the problem. It is revealed that effective surface tension is close to constant value within a rather wide wavelength range. At the boundary of this range in the region of large wave numbers, the obtained value quickly tends to infinity, while spectral amplitudes decay thus corresponding to the theory proposed previously. The width of damping region is estimated for different temperatures and cluster sizes.     

Molecular dynamics simulation with stochastically constrained pressure

The authors propose a new algorithm for molecular dynamics simulation. The method includes a Monte Carlo scheme for incrementing the dilation rate in the equations of motion. The new algorithm needs no extra computation and the dynamics of the system preserves its continuity. Application of this approach is very advantageous for models where the derivation and the computation of the pressure is time consuming. The authors present results of model calculations.     

Wetting behavior of spherical nanoparticles at a vapor-liquid interface: a density functional theory study

The wetting behavior of spherical nanoparticles at a vapor-liquid interface is investigated by using density functional theory, and the line tension calculation method is modified by analyzing the total energy of the vapor-liquid-particle equilibrium. Compared with the direct measurement data from simulation, the results reveal that the thermodynamically consistent Young's equation for planar interfaces is still applicable for high curvature surfaces in predicting a wide range of contact angles. The effect of the line tension on the contact angle is further explored, showing that the contact angles given by the original and modified Young's equations are nearly the same within the region of 60° < θ < 120°. Whereas the effect is considerable when the contact angle deviates from the region. The wetting property of nanoparticles in terms of the fluid-particle interaction strength, particle size, and temperature is also discussed. It is found that, for a certain particle, a moderate fluid-particle interaction strength would keep the particle stable at the interface in a wide temperature range.     

Molecular dynamics simulation of nanoparticle self-assembly at a liquid-liquid interface

We have used molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the in situ self-assembly of modified hydrocarbon nanoparticles (mean diameter of 1.2 nm) at a water-trichloroethylene (TCE) interface. The nanoparticles were first distributed randomly in the water phase. The MD simulation shows the in situ formation of nanoparticle clusters and the migration of both single particles and clusters from the water phase to the trichloroethylene phase, possibly due to the hydrophobic nature of the nanoparticles. Eventually, the single nanoparticles or clusters equilibrate at the water-TCE interface, and the surrounding liquid molecules pack randomly when in contact with the nanoparticle surfaces. In addition, the simulations show that the water-TCE interfacial thickness analyzed from density profiles is influenced by the presence of nanoparticles either near or in contact with the interface but is independent of the number of nanoparticles present. The nanoparticles, water molecules, and TCE molecules all exhibit diffusion anisotropy.