Tracing Memory Effects in Correlated Diffusion Anisotropy in MFI-Type Zeolites by MD Simulation

A memory diffusion model for molecular anisotropic diffusion in siliceous β-zeolite

A memory diffusion model of molecules on β-zeolite is proposed. In the model, molecular diffusion in β-zeolites is treated as jumping from one adsorption site to its neighbors and the jumping probability is a compound probability which includes that provided by the transitional state theory as well as that derived from the information about which direction the target molecule comes from. The proposed approach reveals that the diffusivities along two crystal axes on β-zeolite are correlated. The model is tested by molecular dynamics simulations on diffusion of benzene and other simple molecules in β-zeolites. The results show that the molecules with larger diameters fit the prediction much better and that the "memory effects" are important in all cases.

Single-file diffusion near channel boundaries

Molecular transport under the conditions of single-file diffusion was investigated near the channel boundaries by using dynamic Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations of tracer exchange between single-file channels and their surroundings. The boundary effect reported in our recent papers (Vasenkov S.; Kärger, J. Phys. Rev. E 2002, 66, 052601. Schüring, A.; Vasenkov S.; Fritzsche, S. J. Phys. Chem. B 2005, 109, 16711) was studied in detail. This boundary effect is characterized by deviations of the intrachannel concentration profiles of tracer molecules observed in the case of single-file diffusion near the channel boundaries from the corresponding profiles typical for normal diffusion. It has been shown in our previous studies that these deviations occur under the conditions when the potential-energy difference inside and outside of single-file channels was both comparable and much larger than the activation energy of intrachannel diffusion. Here, we report a quantitative model describing the boundary effect. According to this model, an occurrence of the boundary effect is related to a complex character of diffusion in finite single-file systems. Such diffusion can be described by the following two types of movements occurring in parallel: (i) correlated displacements of all molecules in any particular channel and (ii) fast displacements of single molecules, which are uncorrelated with the displacements of all other molecules in the same channel. The latter displacements are restricted to a certain length interval that depends on the channel length and the channel occupancy. This length interval is shown to determine the extensions of the channel margins where the boundary effect is observed.

Molecular simulation study of adsorption and diffusion on silicalite for a benzene/CO2 mixture

The adsorption and diffusion of a binary mixture of supercritical CO2 and benzene on silicalite (MFI-type) have been studied through the grand canonical Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The adsorption behavior of pure CO2 on silicalite was discussed in detail from the adsorption isotherms, adsorption sites, interaction energies, and isosteric heats of adsorption. For the mixture, the influences of temperature, pressure and composition on the adsorption isotherms have been examined. The adsorption site behavior of the mixture has been analyzed, and benzene molecules get adsorbed preferentially in the more spacious channel intersection positions. These simulation results suggest that SC-CO2 fluid can be used as an efficient desorbent of larger aromatics in the zeolite material. The diffusion characteristic for the benzene/CO2 mixture was studied on the basis of MD simulation. It was found that the large coadsorbed benzene molecule has a pronounced effect on the CO2 diffusion in the mixture, while the mobility of benzene molecules is very small due to geometrical restrictions.