Patrice Paricaud

From dimer to condensed phases at extreme conditions: Accurate predictions of the properties of water by a Gaussian charge polarizable model

Water exhibits many unusual properties that are essential for the existence of life. Water completely changes its character from ambient to supercritical conditions in a way that makes it possible to sustain life at extreme conditions, leading to conjectures that life may have originated in deep-sea vents. Molecular simulation can be very useful in exploring biological and chemical systems, particularly at extreme conditions for which experiments are either difficult or impossible; however this scenario entails an accurate molecular model for water applicable over a wide range of state conditions. Here, we present a Gaussian charge polarizable model (GCPM) based on the model developed earlier by Chialvo and Cummings [Fluid Phase Equilib. 150, 73 (1998)] which is, to our knowledge, the first that satisfies the water monomer and dimer properties, and simultaneously yields very accurate predictions of dielectric, structural, vapor-liquid equilibria, and transport properties, over the entire fluid range. This model would be appropriate for simulating biological and chemical systems at both ambient and extreme conditions. The particularity of the GCPM model is the use of Gaussian distributions instead of points to represent the partial charges on the water molecules. These charge distributions combined with a dipole polarizability and a Buckingham exp-6 potential are found to play a crucial role for the successful and simultaneous predictions of a variety of water properties. This work not only aims at presenting an accurate model for water, but also at proposing strategies to develop classical accurate models for the predictions of structural, dynamic, and thermodynamic properties.

Recent advances in the use of the SAFT approach in describing electrolytes, interfaces, liquid crystals and polymers

Abstract In this contribution we overview the recent developments in the use of the statistical associating fluid theory (SAFT) in the areas of electrolytes, interfaces, and polymers. The focus will be on representative examples of: the use of SAFT together with a Debye–Huckel (DH) and mean spherical approximation (MSA) treatment to examine the effect of added salt on the vapour–liquid equilibria (vapour pressure and density) of aqueous solutions of strong electrolytes; the incorporation of the SAFT free energy functional into a local density functional theory (DFT) to examine the vapour–liquid interface (interfacial thickness and surface tension) of associating fluids; and the use of SAFT with parameters obtained for the long-chain alkanes to describe the adsorption and co-adsorption of alkanes and alkenes in polyethylene polymers. Future directions in this area will also be discussed.

Modeling the Dissociation Conditions of Salt Hydrates and Gas Semiclathrate Hydrates: Application to Lithium Bromide, Hydrogen Iodide, and Tetra-n-butylammonium Bromide + Carbon Dioxide Systems

A thermodynamic approach is proposed to determine the dissociation conditions of salt hydrates and semiclathrate hydrates. The thermodynamic properties of the liquid phase are described with the SAFT-VRE equation of state, and the solid-liquid equilibria are solved by applying the Gibbs energy minimization criterion under stoichiometric constraints. The methodology is applied to water + halide salt systems, and an excellent description of the solid-liquid coexistence curves is obtained. The approach is extended to the water + tetra-n-butylammonium bromide (TBAB) binary mixture, and an accurate representation of the solid-liquid coexistence curves and dissociation enthalpies is obtained. The van der Waals-Platteeuw (vdW-P) theory combined with the new model for salt hydrates is used to determine the dissociation temperatures of semiclathrate hydrates of TBAB + carbon dioxide. A good description of the dissociation pressures of CO(2) semiclathrate hydrates is obtained over wide temperature, pressure, and TBAB composition ranges (AAD = 10.5%). For high TBAB weight fractions the new model predicts a change of hydrate structure from type A to type B as the partial pressure of CO(2) is increased. The model can also capture a change of behavior with respect to TBAB concentration, which has been observed experimentally: an increase of the TBAB weight fraction leads to a stabilization of the gas semiclathrate hydrate at low initial TBAB concentrations below the stoichiometric composition but leads to a destabilization of the hydrate at TBAB concentrations above the stoichiometric composition.

Study of the demixing transition in model athermal mixtures of colloids and flexible self-excluding polymers using the thermodynamic perturbation theory of Wertheim

Fluid phase separation in model athermal mixtures of colloids and polymers is examined by means of the first-order thermodynamic perturbation theory of Wertheim [M. S. Wertheim, J. Chem. Phys. 87, 7323 (1987); W. G. Chapman, G. Jackson, and K. E. Gubbins, Mol. Phys. 65, 1057 (1988)]. The colloidal particles are modeled simply as hard spheres, while the polymers are represented as chains formed from tangent hard-sphere segments. In this study the like (colloid–colloid, polymer–polymer) and unlike (polymer–colloid) repulsive interactions are treated at the same level of microscopic detail; we do not employ the common Asakura–Oosawa (AO) approximations which essentially involve treating the polymer as an ideal (noninteracting) chain. The effect of varying both the chain length and the diameter of the hard-sphere segments of the polymer on the fluid phase behavior of the model polymer–colloid system is investigated. We focus our attention on the stability of the fluid phase relative to a demixing transition into colloid-rich and polymer-rich fluid phases by using a spinodal instability analysis and determine the full coexistence boundaries (binodal). The colloid–polymer system represents the limit where the diameter of the colloid is much larger than the diameter of the segments making up the polymer chain. The precise segment/colloid diameter ratio at which liquid–liquid demixing first occurs is examined in detail as a function of the chain length of the polymer. In the case of moderately short chains the addition of polymer induces the “colloidal vapor–liquid” transition found in polymer–colloid systems, while for long chains a “polymeric vapor–liquid” transition is found. The diameter of the polymeric segments must lie between the AO limit (minimum diameter) and the so-called protein limit (maximum diameter) in order for the system to exhibit fluid–fluid phase separation. The maximum value of the segment diameter which induces phase separation is determined from a simple approximate stability analysis. The critical density of the demixing transitions is not found to tend to be zero for infinitely long polymers, but has a limiting value which depends on the diameter of the segment. An examination of the thermodynamic properties of mixing indicates that the fluid–fluid phase separation in such systems is driven by a large positive enthalpy of mixing which is induced by a large positive volume of mixing due to the unfavorable polymer–colloid excluded volume interactions. The enthalpy of mixing makes an unfavorable contribution to the overall Gibbs free energy (which is seen to counter the favorable entropy of mixing), giving rise to fluid–fluid immiscibility.

A general perturbation approach for equation of state development: Applications to simple fluids, ab initio potentials, and fullerenes

A new perturbation scheme based on the Barker-Henderson perturbation theory [J. Chem. Phys. 47, 4714 (1967)] is proposed to predict the thermodynamic properties of spherical molecules. Accurate predictions of second virial coefficients and vapor-liquid coexistence properties are obtained for a large variety of potential functions (square well, Yukawa, Sutherland, Lennard-Jones, Buckingham, Girifalco). New Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo simulations of the generalized exp-m Buckingham potential are reported. An extension of the perturbation approach to mixtures is proposed, and excellent predictions of vapor-liquid equilibria are obtained for Lennard-Jones mixtures. The perturbation scheme can be applied to complex potential functions fitted to ab initio data to predict the properties of real molecules such as neon. The new approach can also be used as an auxiliary tool in molecular simulation studies, to efficiently optimize an intermolecular potential on macroscopic properties or match force fields based on different potential functions.

Polarizable contributions to the surface tension of liquid water

Surface tension, gamma, strongly affects interfacial properties in fluids. The degree to which polarizability affects gamma in water is thus far not well established. To address this situation, we carry out molecular dynamics simulations to study the interfacial forces acting on a slab of liquid water surrounded by vacuum using the Gaussian charge polarizable (GCP) model at 298.15 K. The GCP model incorporates both a fixed dipole due to Gaussian distributed charges and a polarizable dipole. We find a well-defined bulklike region forms with a width of approximately 31 A. The average density of the bulklike region agrees with the experimental value of 0.997 g/cm3. However, we find that the orientation of the molecules in the bulklike region is strongly influenced by the interfaces, even at a distance five molecular diameters from the interface. Specifically, the orientations of both the permanent and induced dipoles show a preferred orientation parallel to the interface. Near the interface, the preferred orientation of the dipoles becomes more pronounced and the average magnitude of the induced dipoles decreases monotonically. To quantify the degree to which molecular orientation affects gamma, we calculate the contributions to gamma from permanent dipolar interactions, induced dipolar interactions, and dispersion forces. We find that the induced dipole interactions and the permanent dipole interactions, as well as the cross interactions, have positive contributions to gamma, and therefore contribute stability to the interface. The repulsive core interactions result in a negative contribution to gamma, which nearly cancels the positive contributions from the dipoles. The large negative core contributions to gamma are the result of small oxygen-oxygen separation between molecules. These small separations occur due to the strong attractions between hydrogen and oxygen atoms. The final predicted value for gamma (68.65 m/Nm) shows a deviation of approximately 4% of the experimental value of 71.972 m/Nm. The inclusion of polarization is critical for this model to produce an accurate value.

Understanding liquid-liquid immiscibility and LCST behaviour in polymer solutions with a Wertheim TPT1 description

The aim of the work presented in this paper is to help in the understanding of the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) fluid phase behaviour exhibited by polymer solutions. It is well recognized that the LCST in polymer solutions is a consequence of density (compressibility) effects; the solvent is much more compressible than the polymer and the increasing difference in compressibility when the temperature is increased leads to a negative volume of mixing. The separate roles that the repulsive and attractive intermolecular interactions play in this regard are less well understood. In this study we use the Wertheim first-order thermodynamic perturbation theory (TPT1) [Wertheim, M. S., 1987, J. chem. Phys., 87, 7323; Chapman, W. G., Jackson, G., and Gubbins, K. E., 1988, Molec. Phys., 65, 1057] to describe the phase equilibria of model polymer solutions of hard spheres and hard-sphere chains where the diameter of the solvent and the polymeric segments are the same (symmetrical system). The thermodynamic functions (volume, enthalpy, entropy and Gibbs function) of mixing are determined to assess the possibility of a demixing instability in such a system. No fluid-fluid phase separation is found for the purely repulsive (athermal) system, regardless of the chain length of the polymer. The role of the attractive interactions is then investigated by incorporating attractive interactions at the mean-field level; the simplest system with equivalent (symmetric) solvent-solvent, solvent-polymer segment, and polymer segment-polymer segment interaction energies is examined. The attractive interactions are found to be essential in describing the liquid-liquid phase separation; LCST behaviour is found for mixtures with ‘polymer’ chains of seven segments or more. In this case we show that the phase behaviour is driven by an unfavourable (negative) entropy of mixing due to an increase in the density of the solvent on addition of small amounts of polymer. We also determine the thermodynamic properties of mixing for a system of spherical molecules of the same size with directional interactions that give rise to LCST and closed-loop behaviour. As expected the mechanism for phase separation in such systems is very different to that in polymer solutions.

Influence of Cyclic Dimer Formation on the Phase Behavior of Carboxylic Acids. II. Cross-Associating Systems

The doubly bonded dimer association scheme (DBD) proposed by Sear and Jackson is extended to mixtures exhibiting both self- and cross-associations. The PC-SAFT equation of state is combined with the new DBD association contribution to describe the vapor-liquid equilibria of binary mixtures of carboxylic acids + associating compounds (water, alcohols, and carboxylic acids). The effect of doubly bonded dimers on the phase behavior in such systems is less important than in mixtures of carboxylic acids with nonassociating compounds, due to the cross-associations that compete with the formation of DBDs. Nevertheless, a clear improvement in the description of vapor-liquid coexistence curves is achieved over the classical 2B association model, particularly for the dew point curves.

Influence of Cyclic Dimer Formation on the Phase Behavior of Carboxylic Acids

A new thermodynamic approach based on the Sear and Jackson association theory for doubly bonded dimers [Mol. Phys.1994, 82, 1033] is proposed to describe the thermodynamic properties of carboxylic acids. The new model is able to simultaneously represent the vapor pressures, saturated densities, and vaporization enthalpies of the shortest acids and is in a much better agreement with experimental data than other approaches that do no consider the formation of cyclic dimers. The new model is applied to mixtures of carboxylic acids with nonassociating compounds, and a very good description of the vapor-liquid equilibria in mixtures of alkanes + carboxylic acids is obtained.

Examining the effect of chain length polydispersity on the phase behavior of polymer solutions with the statistical associating fluid theory (Wertheim TPT1) using discrete and continuous distributions

Polymers are naturally polydisperse. Polydispersity may have a large effect on the phase behavior of polymer solutions, in particular, on the liquid-liquid phase equilibria. In this paper, we determine the cloud and shadow curves bounded by lower critical solution temperatures for a number of polymer+solvent systems where the polymer is polydisperse in terms of molecular weight (chain length). The moment method [P. Sollich, P. B. Warren, and M. E. Cates, Adv. Chem. Phys. 116, 265 (2001)] is applied with the SAFT approach to determine cloud and shadow curves with continuous Schulz-Flory distributions. It is seen that chain length polydispersity always enhances the extent of liquid-liquid phase equilibria. The predicted cloud curves obtained for continuous distributions are very similar to those obtained for simple ternary mixtures with the same polydispersity index, while the corresponding shadow curves can be very different depending on the composition of the parent distribution. The ternary phase behavior can be used to provide an understanding of the shape of the cloud and shadow curves. Regions of phase equilibria between three liquid phases are found for ternary systems when the chain length distribution is very asymmetrical; such regions are not observed for Schulz-Flory distributions even in the case of a large degree of polydispersity.