An Improved Force Field for the Prediction of the Vapor−Liquid Equilibria for Carboxylic Acids

Computer simulation of volatile organic compound adsorption in atomistic models of molecularly imprinted polymers

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) offer a unique opportunity to significantly advance volatile organic compound (VOC) sensing technologies and a number of other applications. However, the development of these applications using MIPs has been hindered by poor understanding of the microstructure of MIPs, geometry of binding sites, and the details of molecular recognition processes in these materials. This is further complicated by the vast number of optimization parameters such as building components and processing conditions. Computer simulations and molecular modeling can help us understand adsorption and binding phenomena in MIPs on the molecular level and thus provide a route to more efficient MIP design strategies. So far, molecular models have been either oversimplified or severely limited in length scale, essentially focusing on a single binding site. Here, we propose a more general, atomistically detailed model that describes the microstructure of MIPs. We apply this model to investigate adsorption of pyridine, benzene, and toluene in MIPs and demonstrate that it is able to capture a number of essential experimental features. Therefore, this model can serve as a starting point in computational design and optimization of MIPs.

Transferable Potentials for Phase Equilibria. 9. Explicit Hydrogen Description of Benzene and Five-Membered and Six-Membered Heterocyclic Aromatic Compounds

The explicit hydrogen version of the transferable potentials for phase equilibria (TraPPE-EH) force field is extended to benzene, pyridine, pyrimidine, pyrazine, pyridazine, thiophene, furan, pyrrole, thiazole, oxazole, isoxazole, imidazole, and pyrazole. While the Lennard-Jones parameters for carbon, hydrogen (two types), nitrogen (two types), oxygen, and sulfur are transferable for all 13 compounds, the partial charges are specific for each compound. The benzene dimer energies for sandwich, T-shape, and parallel-displaced configurations obtained for the TraPPE-EH force field compare favorably with high-level electronic structure calculations. Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo simulations were carried out to compute the single-component vapor-liquid equilibria for benzene, pyridine, three diazenes, and eight five-membered heterocycles. The agreement with experimental data is excellent with the liquid densities and vapor pressures reproduced within 1 and 5%, respectively. The critical temperatures and normal boiling points are predicted with mean deviations of 0.8 and 1.6%, respectively.

Monte Carlo Simulation of Carboxylic Acid Phase Equilibria

Configurational-bias Monte Carlo simulations were carried out in the Gibbs ensemble to generate phase equilibrium data for several carboxylic acids. Pure component coexistence densities and saturated vapor pressures were determined for acetic acid, propanoic acid, 2-methylpropanoic acid, and pentanoic acid, and binary vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) data for the propanoic acid + pentanoic acid and 2-methylpropanoic acid + pentanoic acid systems. The TraPPE-UA force field was used, as it has recently been extended to include parameters for carboxylic acids. To simulate the branched compound 2-methylpropanoic acid, certain minor assumptions were necessary regarding angle and torsion terms involving the -CH- pseudo-atom, since parameters for these terms do not exist in the TraPPE-UA force field. The pure component data showed good agreement with the available experimental data, particularly with regard to the saturated liquid densities (mean absolute errors were less than 1.1%). On average, the predicted critical temperature and density were within 1% of the experimental values. All of the binary simulations showed good agreement with the experimental x-y data. However, the TraPPE-UA force field predicts saturated vapor pressures of pure components that are larger than the experimental values, and consequently the P-x-y and T-x-y data of the binary systems also deviate from the measured data.

Phase Equilibria in Carbon Dioxide Expanded Solvents: Experiments and Molecular Simulations

We present complementary molecular simulations and experimental results of phase equilibria for carbon dioxide expanded acetonitrile, methanol, ethanol, acetone, acetic acid, toluene, and 1-octene. The volume expansion measurements were done using a high-pressure Jerguson view cell. Molecular simulations were performed using the Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo method. Calculations in the canonical ensemble (NVT) were performed to determine the coexistence curve of the pure solvent systems. Binary mixtures were simulated in the isobaric-isothermal distribution (NPT). Predictions of vapor-liquid equilibria of the pure components agree well with experimental data. The simulations accurately reproduced experimental data on saturated liquid and vapor densities for carbon dioxide, methanol, ethanol, acetone, acetic acid, toluene, and 1-octene. In all carbon dioxide expanded liquids (CXL's) studied, the molecular simulation results for the volume expansion of these binary mixtures were found to be as good as, and in many cases superior to, predictions based on the Peng-Robinson equation of state, demonstrating the utility of molecular simulation in the prediction of CXL phase equilibria.