Multiscale Theory in the Molecular Simulation of Electrolyte Solutions (original) (raw)
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Fluid Phase Equilibria, 2018
We review progress in the development and application of molecular simulation methodology to predict the thermodynamic properties of aqueous electrolytes, focussing on work published since our previous review along similar lines [I. Nezbeda, et al., Mol. Phys. 114 (2016) 1665]. We consider such developments in the context of the use of Monte Carlo (MC) or Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation methodologies using classical force fields. Special attention is paid to the incorporation of charge scaling approaches in the force fields, as well as to the simulation methodology used to compute solubility and osmotic pressure, and the use of the latter quantity to calculate the water activity and osmotic coefficient, and the electrolyte activity coefficient. We emphasize the importance of the statistical analysis of thermodynamic properties obtained from simulation data, and illustrate it with an example analyzing simulation osmotic pressure and electrolyte chemical potential data.
The Journal of Chemical Physics, 2013
We extend the osmotic ensemble Monte Carlo (OEMC) molecular simulation method (Moucǩa et al. J. Phys Chem. B 2011, 115, 7849−7861) for directly calculating the aqueous solubility of electrolytes and for calculating their chemical potentials as functions of concentration to cases involving electrolyte hydrates and mixed electrolytes, including invariant points involving simultaneous precipitation of several solutes. The method utilizes a particular semigrand canonical ensemble, which performs simulations of the solution at a fixed number of solvent molecules, pressure, temperature, and specified overall electrolyte chemical potential. It avoids calculations for the solid phase, incorporating available solid chemical potential data from thermochemical tables, which are based on well-defined reference states, or from other sources. We apply the method to a range of alkali halides in water and to selected examples involving LiCl monohydrate, mixed electrolyte solutions involving water and hydrochloric acid, and invariant points in these solvents. The method uses several existing force-field models from the literature, and the results are compared with experiment. The calculated results agree qualitatively well with the experimental trends and are of reasonable accuracy. The accuracy of the calculated solubility is highly dependent on the solid chemical potential value and also on the force-field model used. Our results indicate that pairwise additive effective force-field models developed for the solution phase are unlikely to also be good models for the corresponding crystalline solid. We find that, in our OEMC simulations, each ionic force-field model is characterized by a limiting value of the total solution chemical potential and a corresponding aqueous concentration. For higher values of the imposed chemical potential, the solid phase in the simulation grows in size without limit. t of the remaining species are fixed. An example is an aqueous solution of s ions with a fixed
Revisiting electrolyte thermodynamic models: Insights from molecular simulations
AIChE Journal, 2018
Pitzer and electrolyte non-random two-liquid (eNRTL) models are the two most widely used electrolyte thermodynamic models. For aqueous sodium chloride (NaCl) solution, both models data satisfactorily up to salt saturation concentration, i.e., ionic strength around 6 molal. However, beyond 6 molal, the model extrapolations deviate significantly and diverge from each other. We examine this divergence by calculating the mean ionic activity coefficient over a wide range of concentration based on molecular simulations and Kirkwood-Buff (KB) theory. We show that the asymptotic behavior of the activity coefficient predicted by the eNRTL model is consistent with the molecular simulation results and supersaturation experimental data.
Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2005
We have developed a molecular-level simulation technique called the expanded-ensemble osmotic molecular dynamics (EEOMD) method, for studying electrolyte solution systems. The EEOMD method performs simulations at a fixed number of solvent molecules, pressure, temperature, and overall electrolyte chemical potential. The method combines elements of constant pressure-constant temperature molecular dynamics and expanded-ensemble grand canonical Monte Carlo. The simulated electrolyte solution systems contain, in addition to solvent molecules, full and fractional ions and undissociated electrolyte molecular units. The fractional particles are coupled to the system via a coupling parameter that varies between 0 (no interaction between the fractional particle and the other particles in the system) and 1 (full interaction between the fractional particle and the other particles in the system). The time evolution of the system is governed by the constant pressure-constant temperature equations of motion and accompanied by random changes in the coupling parameter. The coupling-parameter changes are accepted with a probability derived from the expanded-ensemble osmotic partition function corresponding to the prescribed electrolyte chemical potential. The couplingparameter changes mimic insertion/deletion of particles as in a crude grand canonical Monte Carlo simulation; if the coupling parameter becomes 0, the fractional particles disappear from the system, and as the coupling parameter reaches unity, the fractional particles become full particles. The method is demonstrated for a model of NaCl in water at ambient conditions. To test our approach, we first determine the chemical potential of NaCl in water by the thermodynamic integration technique and by the expanded-ensemble method. Then, we carry out EEOMD simulations for different specified values of the overall NaCl chemical potential and measure the concentration of ions resulting from the simulations. Both computations give consistent results, validating the EEOMD methodology.
Molecular Physics, 2016
Although aqueous electrolytes are among the most important solutions, the molecular simulation of their intertwined properties of chemical potentials, solubility and activity coefficients has remained a challenging problem, and has attracted considerable recent interest. In this perspectives review, we focus on the simplest case of aqueous sodium chloride at ambient conditions and discuss the two main factors that have impeded progress. The first is lack of consensus with respect to the appropriate methodology for force field (FF) development. We examine how most commonly used FFs have been developed, and emphasize the importance of distinguishing between "Training Set Properties" used to fit the FF parameters, and "Test Set Properties", which are pure predictions of additional properties. The second is disagreement among solubility results obtained, even using identical FFs and thermodynamic conditions. Solubility calculations have been approached using both thermodynamic-based methods and direct molecular dynamics-based methods implementing coexisting solution and solid phases. Although convergence has been very recently achieved among results based on the former approach, there is as yet no general agreement with simulation results based on the latter methodology. We also propose a new method to directly calculate the electrolyte standard chemical potential in the Henry-Law ideality model. We conclude by making recommendations for calculating solubility, chemical potentials and activity coefficients, and outline a potential path for future progress.
Multi-scale modelling of ions in solution : from atomistic descriptions to chemical engineering
Http Www Theses Fr, 2011
Ions in solution play a fundamental role in many physical, chemical, and biological processes. For industrial applications these systems are usually described using simple analytical models which are fitted to reproduce the available experimental data. In this work, we propose a multi-scale coarse graining procedure to derive such models from atomistic descriptions. First, parameters for classical force-fields of ions in solution are extracted from ab-initio calculations. Effective (McMillan-Mayer) ion-ion potentials are then derived from radial distribution functions measured in classical molecular dynamics simulations, allowing us to define an implicit solvent model of electrolytes. Finally, perturbation calculations are performed to define the best possible representation for these systems, in terms of charged hard-sphere models. Our final model is analytical and contains no free "fitting" parameters. It shows good agreement with the exact results obtained from Monte-Carlo simulations for the thermodynamic and structural properties. Development of a similar model for the electrolyte viscosity, from information derived from atomistic descriptions, is also introduced.
Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data, 2016
Many industrial processes involve processing aqueous electrolyte solutions. There is thus a need for accurate theories to predict their thermophysical properties. Recent studies have shown that the size of the hydrated ion plays an important role in determining these properties. In this study, we first used molecular dynamics simulations to estimate the effective hydrated ionic size and the free energy of solvation, and then developed correlations allowing for the prediction of these quantities. The temperature dependence of these solution properties was also investigated. Our studies have shown that the effective (hydrated) size, the charge density, and the free energy of solvation of the ions are strongly interdependent. The effective hydrated ionic size also plays an important role in determining the selectivity of membranes to remove such hydrated ions from solutions, for example, in membrane based desalination processes, and related water purification technologies.
A Multi-scale Monte Carlo Method for Electrolytes
2015
Artifacts arise in the simulations of electrolytes using periodic boundary conditions (PBC). We show the origin of these artifacts are the periodic image charges and the constraint of charge neutrality inside the simulation box, both of which are unphysical from the view point of real systems. To cure these problems, we introduce a multi-scale Monte Carlo method, where ions inside a spherical cavity are simulated explicitly, whilst ions outside are treated implicitly using continuum theory. Using the method of Debye charging, we explicitly derive the effective interactions between ions inside the cavity, arising due to the fluctuations of ions outside. We find that these effective interactions consist of two types: 1) a constant cavity potential due to the asymmetry of the electrolyte, and 2) a reaction potential that depends on the positions of all ions inside. Combining the Grand Canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) with a recently developed fast algorithm based of image charge method, we perform a multi-scale Monte Carlo simulation of symmetric electrolytes, and compare it with other simulation methods, including PBC+GCMC method, as well as large scale Monte Carlo simulation. We demonstrate that our multi-scale MC method is capable of capturing the correct physics of a large system using a small scale simulation.
Ion-specific thermodynamics of multicomponent electrolytes: A hybrid HNC/MD approach
Chemical Physics, 2009
Using effective infinite dilution ion-ion interaction potentials derived from explicit-water molecular dynamics (MD) computer simulations in the hypernetted-chain (HNC) integral equation theory we calculate the liquid structure and thermodynamic properties, namely the activity and osmotic coeffcients of various multicomponent aqueous electrolyte mixtures. The electrolyte structure expressed by the ion-ion radial distribution functions is for most ions in excellent agreement with MD and implicit solvent Monte-Carlo (MC) simulation results. Calculated thermodynamic properties are also represented consistently among these three methods. Our versatile HNC/MD hybrid method allows for a quick prediction of the thermodynamics of multicomponent electrolyte solutions for a wide range of concentrations and an efficient assessment of the validity of the employed MD force-fields with possible implications in the development of thermodynamically consistent parameter sets.