Monte Carlo simulation of equilibrium reactions at vapor-liquid interfaces

Chemical reactions are known to behave differently, depending upon their local environment. While the interactions with neighboring molecules may alter both the kinetics of chemical reactions and the overall equilibrium conversion, we have performed simulations of the latter. The particular environment that we address is the vapor-liquid interface, since only a few, limited studies have explored the influence of an interface on equilibrium reaction behavior. Simple dimerization reactions are modeled, as well as more complex multicomponent reactions, using the reactive Monte Carlo (RxMC) simulation technique. We find that the conversion of a reaction can be markedly different at an interface as compared to the bulk vapor and liquid phases, and these trends are analyzed with respect to specific intermolecular interactions. In conjunction, we calculate the surface tension of the reacting fluids at the interface, which is found to have unusual scaling behavior, with respect to the system temperature.     

Location of Pinacyanol in Micellar Solutions of N-Alkyl Trimethylammonium Bromide Surfactants

The interaction of pinacyanol (PIN), a cationic dye formed by monomer and dimer species, with three cationic surfactants (DTAB, TTAB, and HTAB) has been studied spectroscopically and by acid-base equilibrium in the micellar concentration range. In the presence of surfactants, the absorption maximum of the two main peaks undergoes bathochromic shifts. The spectral shifts suggest a hydrophobic environment of the chromophore. The presence of micelles favors the monomer species; i.e., it reduces the extent of dimerization. The pK(a) of PIN in micellar medium is similar to the value in pure water. When acid-base equilibrium was considered, the changes in the interfacial pK(a) allowed to us to determine the constant dielectric for the interfacial region (epsilon=69). This led to the conclusion that the dye must be solubilized between the solution and the hydrocarbon chain core, i.e., in the aqueous micellar interface. This location can be explained by a cation-pi interaction between the uncharged ring system of the dye and the cationic headgroups of the surfactants. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.     

Verification of Onsager's reciprocal relations for evaporation and condensation using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics

Non-equilibrium molecular dynamic (NEMD) simulations have been used to study heat and mass transfer across a vapor-liquid interface for a one-component system using a Lennard-Jones spline potential. It was confirmed that the relation between the surface tension and the surface temperature in the non-equilibrium system was the same as in equilibrium (local equilibrium). Interfacial transfer coefficients were evaluated for the surface, which expressed the heat and mass fluxes in temperature and chemical potential differences across the interfacial region (film). In this analysis it was assumed that the Onsager reciprocal relations were valid. In this paper we extend the number of simulations such that we can calculate all four interface film transfer coefficients along the whole liquid-vapor coexistence curve. We do this analysis both for the case where we use the measurable heat flux on the vapor side and for the case where we use the measurable heat flux on the liquid side. The most important result we found is that the coupling coefficients within the accuracy of the calculation are equal. This is the first verification of the validity of the Onsager relations for transport through a surface using molecular dynamics. The interfacial film transfer coefficients are found to be a function of the surface temperature alone. New expressions are given for the kinetic theory values of these coefficients which only depend on the surface temperature. The NEMD values were found to be in good agreement with these expressions.     

Surface tension of quantum fluids from molecular simulations

We present the first molecular simulations of the vapor-liquid surface tension of quantum liquids. The path integral formalism of Feynman was used to account for the quantum mechanical behavior of both the liquid and the vapor. A replica-data parallel algorithm was implemented to achieve good parallel performance of the simulation code on at least 32 processors. We have computed the surface tension and the vapor-liquid phase diagram of pure hydrogen over the temperature range 18-30 K and pure deuterium from 19 to 34 K. The simulation results for surface tension and vapor-liquid orthobaric densities are in very good agreement with experimental data. We have computed the interfacial properties of hydrogen-deuterium mixtures over the entire concentration range at 20.4 and 24 K. The calculated equilibrium compositions of the mixtures are in excellent agreement with experimental data. The computed mixture surface tension shows negative deviations from ideal solution behavior, in agreement with experimental data and predictions from Prigogine's theory. The magnitude of the deviations at 20.4 K are substantially larger from simulations and from theory than from experiments. We conclude that the experimentally measured mixture surface tension values are systematically too high. Analysis of the concentration profiles in the interfacial region shows that the nonideal behavior can be described entirely by segregation of H(2) to the interface, indicating that H(2) acts as a surfactant in H(2)-D(2) mixtures.     

Density functional theory of size-dependent surface tension of Lennard-Jones fluid droplets using a double well type Helmholtz free energy functional

A double well type Helmholtz free energy density functional and a model density profile for a two phase vapor-liquid system are used to obtain the size-dependent interfacial properties of the vapor-liquid interface at coexistence condition along the lines of van der Waals and Cahn and Hilliard density functional formalism of the interface. The surface tension, temperature-density curve, density profile, and thickness of the interface of Lennard-Jones fluid droplet-vapor equilibrium, as predicted in this work are reported. The planar interfacial properties, obtained from consideration of large radius of the liquid drop, are in good agreement with the results of other earlier theories and experiments. The same free energy model has been tested by solving the equations numerically, and the results compare well with those from the use of model density profile.     

Exploring parameter space effects on structure-property relationships of surfactants at liquid-liquid interfaces

The ubiquitous use of surfactants in commercial and industrial applications has led to many experimental, theoretical, and simulation based studies. These efforts seek to provide a molecular level understanding of the effects on structuring behavior and the corresponding impacts on observable properties (e.g., interfacial tension). With such physical detail, targeted system design can be improved over typical techniques of observational trends and phenomenological correlations by taking advantage of predictive system response. This research provides a systematic study of part of the broad parameter space effects on equilibrium microstructure and interfacial properties of amphiphiles at a liquid-liquid interface using the interfacial statistical associating fluid theory density functional theory as a molecular model for the system from the bulk to the interface. Insights into the molecular level physics and thermodynamics governing the system behavior are discussed as they relate to both predictions qualitatively consistent with experimental observations and extensions beyond currently available studies.     

阴离子Gemini表面活性剂在油/水界面行为的分子动力学模拟

采用分子动力学方法研究了磺酸盐型阴离子Gemini表面活性剂在油/水界面的吸附行为, 考察了不同长度的连接基(Spacer)对表面活性剂在界面的聚集形态及界面性质的影响. 密度分布和微观结构信息显示, Gemini表面活性剂能在油/水界面形成单层膜结构. Gemini表面活性剂能使油/水界面的厚度显著增大, 并使界面形成能降低. 当连接基为6个碳时, 此类磺酸盐型Gemini表面活性剂的界面厚度最大, 形成的界面最稳定. 连接基长度对Gemini表面活性剂单层膜周围的水分子和Na⁺的吸附结构影响不大, 但是能影响水分子的扩散行为.     

Dendritic PtCo alloy nanoparticles as high performance oxygen reduction catalysts

We studied the physical properties and the concentration profile of benzene+water+caprolactam mixtures near the fluid-fluid interface using self-consistent field (SCF) theory. This yields the interfacial tension which plays an important role in describing the stability of transient liquid droplets of one phase in the other. The studies were performed at a fixed temperature of 313K. Flory-Huggins binary interaction parameters and the compound lattice segment numbers are input parameters for the applied SCF theory. These parameters were derived from activity coefficient relations, which are used to describe experimental liquid-liquid and vapor-liquid phase equilibrium measurements. Using first principles, the benzene-water interface was studied and the resulting interfacial tension was found to be in agreement with experimental values. This study illustrates that caprolactam accumulates at the benzene-water interface, acting as a weak surfactant. The interfacial tension is also demonstrated to be affected by the caprolactam concentration and the SCF results are in fair agreement with the experimental observations.     

Simulation of heterogeneous end-coupling reactions in polydisperse polymer blends

The influence of polydispersity on the interfacial kinetics of end-coupling and microstructure formation in the melt of immiscible polymers was studied using dissipative particle dynamics simulations. The irreversible reaction started at a flat interface between two layers, each of which contained polymer chains of two different lengths with functionalized or unreactive end groups. As in the case of fully functionalized monodisperse reactants [A. V. Berezkin and Y. V. Kudryavtsev, Macromolecules 44, 112 (2011)], four kinetic regimes were observed: linear (mean field coupling at the initial interface), saturation (decreasing the reaction rate due to the copolymer brush formation or reactant depletion near the interface), autocatalytic (loss of the initial interface stability and formation of a lamellar microstructure), and terminal (microstructure ripening under diffusion control). The interfacial instability is caused by overcrowding the interface with the reaction product, and it can be kinetically suppressed by increasing chain length of the reactants. Main effects of polydispersity are as follows: (i) the overall end-coupling rate is dominated by the shortest reactive chains; (ii) the copolymer concentration at the interface causing its instability can be not the same as in the lamellas formed afterwards; (iii) mean length of the copolymer product considerably changes with conversion passing through a minimum when a microstructure is just formed.     

Molecular dynamics simulation of four typical surfactants at oil/water interface

In the present study, we have performed molecular dynamics simulations to describe the microscopic behaviors of the anionic, nonionic, zwitterion, and gemini surfactants at oil/water interface. The abilities of reducing the interfacial tension and forming the stable interfacial film of the four surfactants have been investigated through evaluating interfacial thickness, interface formation energy and radial distribution function. The results show that the four kinds of surfactants can form in stable oil/water interface of monolayer, and the gemini surfactant can form the more stable monolayer. The results of the above three parameters demonstrate that the gemini surfactant has the best simulation effect in the four surfactants. From the calculated interfacial tension values, the gemini surfactant possess the more powerful ability of reducing the interfacial tension than others, so it is more suitable to be used as the surfactant for flooding. In addition, the effects of different electric field intensities on surfactants were calculated, through the radial distribution function of the hydrophilic group in the surfactant and the oxygen atom in the water. We have found that the adding of the periodic electric field can significantly affect the diffusion behavior of the molecules, and nonionic surfactant has stronger demulsification capability than others.     

Janus balance of amphiphilic colloidal particles

We introduce the notion of "Janus balance" (J), defined as the dimensionless ratio of work to transfer an amphiphilic colloidal particle (a "Janus particle") from the oil-water interface into the oil phase, normalized by the work needed to move it into the water phase. The J value can be calculated simply from the interfacial contact angle and the geometry of Janus particles, without the need to know the interfacial energy. It is demonstrated that Janus particles of the same chemical composition but different geometries will have the highest adsorption energy when J = 1. Even for particles of homogeneous chemical makeup, the Janus balance concept can be applied when considering the contact angle hysteresis in desorbing the particle from equilibrium into the water or oil phase. The Janus balance concept may enable predictions of how a Janus particle behaves with respect to efficiency and function as a solid surfactant, as the Janus balance of solid surfactants is the analog of the classical hydrophile-lipophile balance of small surfactant molecules.     

Interfacial Activity of Amine‐Functionalized Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxanes (POSS): A Simple Strategy To Structure Liquids

Amine‐functionalized polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS), the smallest, monodisperse cage‐shaped silica cubic nanoparticle, is exceptionally interfacially active and can form assemblies that jam the toluene/water interface, locking in non‐equilibrium shapes of one liquid phase in another. The packing density of the amine‐functionalized POSS assembly at the water/toluene interface can be tuned by varying the concentration, the pH value, and the degree of POSS functionalization. Functionalized POSS gives a higher interface coverage, and hence a lower interfacial tension, than nanoparticle surfactants formed by interactions between functionalized nanoparticles and polymeric ligands. Hydrogen‐bonded POSS surfactants are more stable at the interface, offering some unique advantages for generating Pickering emulsions over typical micron‐sized colloidal particles and ligand‐stabilized nanoparticle surfactants.     

Electron density matching as a guide to surfactant design

The effectiveness at reducing interfacial tension between water and different organic solvents was studied, with 14 structurally different dichain sulfosuccinate surfactants. Variations in chemical structure ranged from linear/branched alkyl tail groups, to phenyl-tipped tail units, to partially and fully fluorinated tails. The solvents n-heptane, toluene, and perfluoroheptane were used as example oil phases. Interfacial activity was measured in terms of a reduced interfacial tension scale, R(IFT), based on the value in the presence of surfactants compared to that for the pure solvent-water interface. Overall surfactant chain structure was determined to be the key factor affecting R(IFT). Furthermore, a strong correlation was observed between R(IFT) and the electron density rho(e) of the different surfactants: with any given oil, the most effective surfactants have rho(e) values closest to that for the solvent. For example, phenyl-tipped surfactants were shown to be comparatively more effective at the interface with an aromatic solvent (toluene) than with an aliphatic n-alkane (heptane). Furthermore, fluorination of the tail groups decreased effectiveness at the hydrocarbon/water interface, which was substantially increased at the fluorocarbon/water interface: this too followed the electron density-matching pattern. The importance of chain-tip chemical structure was also noted, with regard to the introduction of phenyl, CF3-, and H-CF2- terminal moieties. For branched alkyl-tailed surfactants, it was found that effectiveness could be linked to an empirical "branching factor". The significance of the electron density matching of organic solvent and surfactant for the prediction of interfacial activities is highlighted, and this concept may prove useful for the future design of new high-efficiency surfactants.     

Interfacial activity of polymer-coated gold nanoparticles

A systematic study of the interfacial activity of polymer-coated gold nanoparticles was performed with the use of a computer-controlled four-roll mill. The nanoparticle locality within the polymeric domains (bulk or interface) was controlled by means of a mixture of polymeric ligands grafted to the gold nanoparticle core. The bulk polymers were polybutadiene (PBd) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Monoterminated PDMS and PBd ligands were synthesized on the basis of the esterification of reactive groups (such as hydroxyl or amino groups) with lipoic acid anhydride. The formation of polymer-coated nanoparticles using these lipoic acid-functionalized polymers was confirmed via transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and their interfacial activity was manifested as a reduction of the interfacial tension and in the enhanced stability of thin films (as seen via the inhibition of coalescence). The nanoparticles showed an equal, if not superior, ability to reduce the interfacial tension when compared to previous studies on the effect of insoluble surfactants; however, these particles proved not to be as effective at inhibiting coalescence as their surfactant counterpart. We suggest that this effect may be caused by an increase in the attractive van der Waals forces created by the presence of metal-core nanoparticles. Experimental measurements using the four-roll mill allow us to explore the relationship between nanoparticle concentration at the interface and interfacial tension. In particular, we have found evidence that the interface concentration can be increased relative to the equilibrium value achieved by diffusion alone, and thus the interfacial tension can be systematically reduced if the interfacial area is increased temporarily via drop deformation or breakup followed by recoalescence.     

Thermodynamics of mechanical transduction of surface confined receptor/ligand reactions

Chemomechanics of surface stress is discussed in terms of interfacial thermodynamics. In the first section the paper shows how to quantitatively describe the chemical equilibrium of a receptor/ligand binding reaction confined at a solid-liquid interface and how the overall work of the reaction splits into chemical and surface work, that appears as a surface pressure. In the second section this thermodynamic model is applied to describe the experimental results of microcantilever bending induced by DNA hybridization occurring onto one of its faces.     

Molecular simulation of fluid-solid interfaces at nanoscale

The equilibrium states of vapor and liquid coexistent phases in contact with a solid surface are studied at the nanoscale by molecular dynamics simulations for a temperature close to the fluid triple point. The characteristics of the solid-fluid interfaces are determined when the interaction strength between the fluid and the solid varies in order to go from a situation of complete drying to that of complete wetting. From the vapor-liquid density profiles of liquid drops lying on the substrate surface or menisci of liquid films confined in slit pores, the contact angles made by the vapor-liquid interface with the solid are computed. The angle values are similar for the drops and the films. They are also in good qualitative agreement with the estimates obtained through the Young's relation from the surface tensions associated with the vapor-solid, liquid-solid, and vapor-liquid interfaces. However, at this scale, the uncertainties inherent to the angle computation and, to a lesser extent, to size effects seem to preclude that the quantitative agreement between the angle estimates obtained from the interface geometry and calculated from the Young's relation can be better than few degrees.     

Vapor-liquid interfacial properties of rigid-linear Lennard-Jones chains

We have obtained the interfacial properties of short rigid-linear chains formed from tangentially bonded Lennard-Jones monomeric units from direct simulation of the vapour-liquid interface. The full long-range tails of the potential are accounted for by means of an improved version of the inhomogeneous long-range corrections of Janec?ek [J. Phys. Chem. B 110, 6264-6269 (2006)] proposed recently by MacDowell and Blas [J. Chem. Phys. 131, 074705 (2009)] valid for spherical as well as for rigid and flexible molecular systems. Three different model systems comprising of 3, 4, and 5 monomers per molecule are considered. The simulations are performed in the canonical ensemble, and the vapor-liquid interfacial tension is evaluated using the test-area method. In addition to the surface tension, we also obtain density profiles, coexistence densities, critical temperature and density, and interfacial thickness as functions of temperature, paying particular attention to the effect of the chain length and rigidity on these properties. According to our results, the main effect of increasing the chain length (at fixed temperature) is to sharpen the vapor-liquid interface and to increase the width of the biphasic coexistence region. As a result, the interfacial thickness decreases and the surface tension increases as the molecular chains get longer. The surface tension has been scaled by critical properties and represented as a function of the difference between coexistence densities relative to the critical density.     

Experimental Study of the Effect of Strong Alkali on Lowering the Interfacial Tension of Oil/Heavy Alkylbenzene Sulfonates System

Experimental studies were conducted to explore the fundamental mechanisms of alkali to lower the interfacial tension of oil/heavy alkylbenzene sulfonates (HABS) system. Sodium hydroxide was used as the strong alkali chemical to investigate the interfacial tension (IFT) of oil/HABS system. The influences of salt and alkali on the interfacial activity were studied by the measurement of interfacial tension and partition coefficient. Moreover, the alkali/surfactant solutions were measured by dynamic laser scattering. The results showed that compared with the salt, the function of alkali to lower the interfacial tension and improve partition coefficient is more significant. The micelles formed by surfactants could be disaggregated because of adding alkali, so the size of micelles decreases and the number of mono‐surfactants increases, then more surfactant molecules move to the interface of oil/surfactant system and the adsorption of surfactants at oil‐water interfaces increases, which can lead to the decrease of IFT.     

Monte Carlo simulations of Lennard-Jones nonionic surfactant adsorption at the liquid/vapor interface

We present Monte Carlo simulations of nonionic surfactant adsorption at the liquid/vapor interface of a monatomic solvent. All molecules in the system, solvent and surfactant, are characterized by the Lennard-Jones (LJ) potential using differing interaction parameters. Surfactant molecules consist of an amphiphilic chain with a solvophilic head and a solvophobic tail. Adjacent atoms along the surfactant chain are connected by finitely extensible harmonic springs. Solvent molecules move via the Metropolis random-walk algorithm, whereas surfactant molecules move according to the continuum configurational bias Monte Carlo (CBMC) method. We generate quantitative thermodynamic adsorption and surface tension isotherms in addition to surfactant radius of gyration, tilt angles, and potentials of mean force. Surface tension simulations compared to those calculated from the simulated adsorbed amounts and the Gibbs adsorption isotherm agree confirming equilibrium in our simulations. We find that the classical Langmuir isotherm is obeyed for our LJ surfactants over the range of head and tail lengths studied. Although simulated surfactant chains in the bulk solution exhibit random orientations, surfactant chains at the interface orient roughly perpendicular and the tails elongate compared to bulk chains even in the submonolayer adsorption regime. At a critical surfactant concentration, designated as the critical aggregation concentration (CAC), we find aggregates in the solution away from the interface. At higher concentrations, simulated surface tensions remain practically constant. Using the simulated potential of mean force in the submonolayer regime and an estimate of the surfactant footprint at the CAC, we predict a priori the Langmuir adsorption constant, KL, and the maximum monolayer adsorption, Gammam. Adsorption is driven not by proclivity of the surfactant for the interface, but by the dislike of the surfactant tails for the solvent, that is by a "solvophobic" effect. Accordingly, we establish that a coarse-grained LJ surfactant system mimics well the expected equilibrium behavior of aqueous nonionic surfactants adsorbing at the air/water interface.