Force-field dependence on the interfacial structure of oil–water interfaces

Molecular dynamics simulation of surfactant reducing MMP between CH4 and n-decane

Reinjecting produced methane offers cost-efficiency and environmental benefits for enhances oil recovery. High minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) in methane-oil systems poses a challenge. To overcome this, researchers are increasingly focusing on using surfactants to reduce MMP, thus enhancing the effectiveness of methane injections for oil recovery. This study investigated the impact of pressure and temperature on the equilibrium interfacial tension of the CH4+n-decane system using molecular dynamics simulations and the vanishing interfacial tension technique. The primary goal was to assess the potential of surfactants in lowering MMP. Among four tested surfactants, ME-6 exhibited the most promise by reducing MMP by 14.10% at 373 K. Key findings include that the addition of ME-6 enriching CH4 at the interface, enhancing its solubility in n-decane, improving n-decane diffusion capacity, CH4 weakens n-decane interactions and strengthens its own interaction with n-decane. As the difference in interactions of n-decane with ME-6's ends decreases, the system trends towards a mixed phase. This research sets the stage for broader applications of mixed-phase methane injection in reservoirs, with the potential for reduced gas flaring and environmental benefits.

Multiscale Modeling of Aqueous Electric Double Layers

From the stability of colloidal suspensions to the charging of electrodes, electric double layers play a pivotal role in aqueous systems. The interactions between interfaces, water molecules, ions and other solutes making up the electrical double layer span length scales from Ångströms to micrometers and are notoriously complex. Therefore, explaining experimental observations in terms of the double layer's molecular structure has been a long-standing challenge in physical chemistry, yet recent advances in simulations techniques and computational power have led to tremendous progress. In particular, the past decades have seen the development of a multiscale theoretical framework based on the combination of quantum density functional theory, force-field based simulations and continuum theory. In this Review, we discuss these theoretical developments and make quantitative comparisons to experimental results from, among other techniques, sum-frequency generation, atomic-force microscopy, and electrokinetics. Starting from the vapor/water interface, we treat a range of qualitatively different types of surfaces, varying from soft to solid, from hydrophilic to hydrophobic, and from charged to uncharged.

Learning Coarse-Grained Potentials for Binary Fluids

For a multiple-fluid system, CG models capable of accurately predicting the interfacial properties as a function of curvature are still lacking. In this work, we propose a new probabilistic machine learning (ML) model for learning CG potentials for binary fluids. The water-hexane mixture is selected as a typical immiscible binary liquid-liquid system. We develop a new CG force field (FF) using the Shinoda-DeVane-Klein (SDK) FF framework and compute parameters in this CG FF using the proposed probabilistic ML method. It is shown that a standard response-surface approach does not provide a unique set of parameters, as it results in a loss function with multiple shallow minima. To address this challenge, we develop a probabilistic ML approach where we compute the probability density function (PDF) of parameters that minimize the loss function. The PDF has a well-defined peak corresponding to a unique set of parameters in the CG FF that reproduces the desired properties of a liquid-liquid interface. We compare the performance of the new CG FF with several existing FFs for the water-hexane mixture, including two atomistic and three CG FFs with respect to modeling the interface structure and thermodynamic properties. It is demonstrated that the new FF significantly improves the CG model prediction of both the interfacial tension and structure for the water-hexane mixture.

Molecular Modeling of CO2 and n-Octane in Solubility Process and α-Quartz Nanoslit

After primary and secondary oil recovery, CO2-enhanced oil recovery (EOR) has become one of the most mentioned technologies in tertiary oil recovery. Since the oil is confined in an unconventional reservoir, the interfacial properties of CO2 and oil are different from in conventional reservoirs, and play a key role in CO2 EOR. In this study, molecular dynamics simulations are performed to investigate the interfacial properties, such as interfacial tension, minimum miscibility pressure (MMP), and CO2 solubility. The vanishing interfacial tension method is used to get the MMP (~10.8 MPa at 343.15 K) which is in agreement with the reported experimental data, quantitatively. Meanwhile, the diffusion coefficients of CO2 and n-octane under different pressures are calculated to show that the diffusion is mainly improved at the interface. Furthermore, the displacement efficiency and molecular orientation in α-quartz nanoslit under different CO2 injection ratios have been evaluated. After CO2 injection, the adsorbed n-octane molecules are found to be displaced from surface by the injected CO2 and, then, the orientation of n-octane becomes more random, which indicates that and CO2 can enhance the oil recovery and weaken the interaction between n-octane and α-quartz surface. The injection ratio of CO2 to n-octane is around 3:1, which could achieve the optimal displacement efficiency.

Structure and Mass Transport Characteristics at the Intrinsic Liquid-Vapor Interfaces of Alkanes

In this paper, an instantaneous interface definition has been used to study the intrinsic structure and self-diffusion coefficient in the vicinity of the liquid-vapor interfaces of decane and tetracosane at three different temperatures using molecular dynamics simulations, and the results have been compared with those obtained on the basis of the conventional Gibbs dividing surface (time- and space-averaged interface). The alkane molecules were modeled using the united atom NERD force field. Partial layered structures of alkane molecules at the liquid-vapor interface are observed as a pinned structure of alkane liquids based on the intrinsic interface. This kind of characteristic has not been observed in the density profiles obtained based on the Gibbs dividing surface. By examining the orientation order parameter and radius of gyration of the alkane molecules, it was observed that the alkane molecules were preferentially oriented to be more parallel to the intrinsic interface than to the Gibbs dividing surface, and the shape of the alkane molecules is slightly changed in the vicinity of the liquid-vapor interfaces. The self-diffusion coefficient parallel to the intrinsic interface was examined using the Green-Kubo relation, where the projection of the velocity in the parallel direction to the local intrinsic interface is used in the velocity correlation function. It was found that the self-diffusion coefficient in the direction parallel to the intrinsic interface changes as the position approaches the interface in a more obvious manner as compared with the self-diffusion coefficient obtained with respect to the Gibbs dividing surface. These results suggest that the use of an instantaneous interface definition allowed us to capture sharp variations in transport properties which are originating due to steeper structure at the liquid-vapor interfaces.

Molecular dynamics simulations of a new branched antimicrobial peptide: a comparison of force fields

Branched antimicrobial peptides are promising as a new class of antibiotics displaying high activity and low toxicity and appear to work through a unique mechanism of action. We explore the structural dynamics of a covalently branched 18 amino acid peptide (referred to as B2088) in aqueous and membrane mimicking environments through molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Towards this, we carry out conventional MD simulations and supplement these with replica exchange simulations. The simulations are carried out using four different force fields that are commonly employed for simulating biomolecular systems. These force fields are GROMOS53a6, CHARMM27 with cMAP, CHARMM27 without cMAP and AMBER99sb. The force fields are benchmarked against experimental data available from circular dichroism and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies, and show that CHARMM27 without cMAP correction is the most successful in reproducing the structural dynamics of B2088 both in water and in the presence of micelles. Although the four force fields predict different structures of B2088, they all show that B2088 stabilizes against the head group of the lipid through hydrogen bonding of its Lys and Arg side chains. This leads us to hypothesize that B2088 is unlikely to penetrate into the hydrophobic region of the membrane owing to the high free energy costs of transfer from water, and possibly acts by carpeting and thus disrupting the membrane.

The intrinsic interfacial structure of ionic surfactant monolayers at water–oil and water–vapour interfaces

Using computer simulations, we investigate the interfacial structure of sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) monolayers adsorbed at the water surface and water–oil interfaces. Using an algorithm that removes the averaging effect of the capillary waves, we obtain a detailed view of the solvation structure of water around the monolayer. We investigate surface concentrations between 45 and 33 Å 2 per surfactant, which are near experimental conditions corresponding to the critical micellar concentration and the formation of Newton black films. The surfactants induce a layering structure in water, which disappears at approximately 1 nm from the monolayer plane. The water molecules exhibit a preferred orientation with the dipoles pointing towards the monolayer. The orientational order decays slowly, but it does not influence the hydrogen bond structure of water, which is significantly disrupted in the interfacial region only. These structural changes are qualitatively the same in SDS–water and oil–SDS–water interfaces. In the latter case, we find a small degree of penetration of oil in the monolayer (between 0.2 and 0.25 molecules per SDS). This small penetration has a measurable effect on the monolayer, which increases its thickness by approximately 10 per cent. The bending modulus of the SDS monolayers is of the order of the thermal energy, k B T .