Monte Carlo simulations of equilibrium solubilities and structure of water in n-alkanes and polyethylene

Sorption of Perfluorinated and Pharmaceutical Compounds in Plastics: A Molecular Simulation Study

The aim of the current study is to investigate the effect of temperature and degree of polymerisation on the thermodynamic interaction of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) into plastics. The occurrence of contaminants of emerging concern such as pharmaceutical drugs, PFCs, microplastics (MPs), etc., in sources of drinking water have posed significant health risks to aquatic life and humans in recent years. These organic pollutants can interact with MPs and pose much higher health risks; consequently, MPs become a transport vector and thus alter their migration as well as occurrence in the environment. The purpose of this paper is to examine the adsorption mechanism of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), and sulfamethazine (SMT)—relative to water—on polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) using an extended Flory–Huggins approach. The results suggest that in an aqueous environment, both PFOA and PFOS may be taken up preferentially by PP and PE, although less strongly by PE. The degree of polymerisation of PE and PP did not significantly influence the observed behaviour. In terms of sorption affinity, the observed affinity was PFOA>PFOS>SMT which was consistence for both PE and PP.

Influence of fluorination on barrier properties of polymers: Insights from Monte Carlo simulations of eicosanes + methane

Fluorination is widely used to improve the resistance and physical properties of polymers that are cheap to manufacture. This process improves the resistance properties of unfluorinated materials. This study examines the effects of varying the degree of fluorination on the clustering and absorption behaviour of methane n-eicosane. Monte Carlo simulations were performed for several different pressure values, at ambient temperature, to determine the uptake of methane into the eicosanes. The density of the pure eicosanes, simulated at ambient conditions, compared favourably with experimental data for the relevant polymers. The spatial configurations resulting from the absorption simulations were analysed to determine the clustering behaviour of absorbed methane. Both the prevalence of cluster formation in general, and the occurrence of specific cluster topologies of various sizes were considered. Cyclic clusters had a tendency to become more prevalent in unfluorinated eicosanes as the gas pressure was increased, while the presence of fluorine atoms on the eicosane backbone appeared to inhibit the formation of such clusters.

Force-Field Based Quasi-Chemical Method for Rapid Evaluation of Binary Phase Diagrams

We present the Pair Configurations to Molecular Activity Coefficients (PAC-MAC) method. The method is based on the pair sampling technique of Blanco (Fan, C. F.; Olafson, B. D.; Blanco, M.; Hsu, S. L. Application of Molecular Simulation to Derive Phase Diagrams of Binary Mixtures. Macromolecules 1992, 25, 3667-3676) with an extension that takes the packing of the molecules into account by a free energy model. The intermolecular energy is calculated using classical force fields. PAC-MAC is able to predict activity coefficients and corresponding vapor-liquid equilibrium diagrams at least 4 orders of magnitude faster than molecular simulations. The accuracy of the PAC-MAC method is tested by comparing the results with experimental data and with the results of the COSMO-SAC model (Lin, S.-T.; Sandler, S. I. A Priori Phase Equilibrium Prediction from a Segment Contribution Solvation Model. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2002, 41, 899-913). PAC-MAC (using the OPLS-aa force field) is shown to be comparable in accuracy to COSMO-SAC, at the considerable advantage that PAC-MAC in principle does not require quantum calculation, provided proper force fields to be available.

Water absorption in polyethylene under external electric fields

Monte Carlo simulations of the solubility and structure of water in polyethylene in thermodynamic equilibrium with liquid water were performed in external fields ranging from 2 x 10(5) to 4 x 10(9) V/m. For a given equilibrium temperature and pressure, the water solubility decreases at higher fields. This occurs since it is energetically favorable for water molecules to be in the pure water phase than in the polyethylene matrix at high field strengths, and results in an increased density in the water phase. However, fields relevant to high voltage conduction (in the absence of defects that can lead to large local field strengths) do not change the solubility. In addition, at large fields the number of water clusters decreases for all cluster sizes. The rate of decrease is highest for large clusters, and a larger fraction of water molecules exist as monomers in the polyethylene matrix at high fields. Large fields also cause alignment of the water molecules, which leads to more clusters with linear topologies and hence an increase in the cluster radius of gyration.