With the emergence of hydrophobic deep eutectic solvents (DESs), the scope of applications of DESs has been expanded to include situations in which miscibility with water is undesirable. Whereas most studies have focused on the applications of hydrophobic DESs from a practical standpoint, few theoretical works exist that investigate the structural and thermodynamic properties at the nanoscale. In this study, Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations have been performed to model DESs composed of tetraalkylammonium chloride hydrogen bond acceptor and decanoic acid hydrogen bond donor (HBD) at a molar ratio of 1:2, with three different cation chain lengths (4, 7, and 8). After fine-tuning force field parameters, densities, viscosities, self-diffusivities, and ionic conductivities of the DESs were computed over a wide temperature range. The liquid structure was examined using radial distribution functions (RDFs) and hydrogen bond analysis. The MD simulations reproduced the experimental density and viscosity data from the literature reasonably well and were used to predict diffusivities and ionic conductivities, for which experimental data are scarce or unavailable. It was found that although an increase in the cation chain length considerably affected the density and transport properties of the DESs (i.e., yielding smaller densities and slower dynamics), no significant influence was observed on the RDFs and the hydrogen bonds. The self-diffusivities showed the following order for the mobility of the various components: HBD > anion > cation. Strong hydrogen bonds between the hydroxyl and carbonyl groups of decanoic acid and between the hydroxyl group of decanoic acid and chloride were observed to dominate the intermolecular interactions.

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have emerged as a cheaper and greener alternative to conventional organic solvents. Choline chloride (ChCl) mixed with urea at a molar ratio of 1:2 is one of the most common DESs for a wide range of applications such as electrochemistry, material science, and biochemistry. In this study, molecular dynamics simulations are performed to study the effect of urea content on the thermodynamic and transport properties of ChCl and urea mixtures. With increased mole fraction of urea, the number of hydrogen bonds (HBs) between cation-anion and ion-urea decreases, while the number of HBs between urea-urea increases. Radial distribution functions (RDFs) for ChCl-urea and ChCl-ChCl pairs shows a significant decrease as the mole fraction of urea increases. Using the computed RDFs, Kirkwood-Buff Integrals (KBIs) are computed. KBIs show that interactions of urea-urea become stronger, while interactions of urea-ChCl and ChCl-ChCl pairs become slightly weaker with increasing mole fraction of urea. All thermodynamic factors are found larger than one, indicating a non-ideal mixture. Our results also show that self- and collective diffusivities increase, while viscosities decrease with increasing urea content. This is mainly due to the weaker interactions between ions and urea, resulting in enhanced mobilities. Ionic conductivities exhibit a non-monotonic behavior. Up to a mole fraction of 0.5, the ionic conductivities increase with increasing urea content and then reach a plateau.

Accurate knowledge and control of thermal conductivities is central for the efficient design of heat storage and transfer devices working with deep eutectic solvents (DESs). The addition of water is a straightforward and cost-efficient way of tuning many properties of DESs. In this work, the thermal conductivities of aqueous solutions of reline, ethaline, and glyceline are reported for the first time. The non-equilibrium molecular dynamics Müller-Plathe (MP) method was used, along with the well-established GAFF and SPC/E force fields for DESs and water, respectively. We show that thermal conductivities of neat DESs are in excellent agreement with available experimental data. The addition of 25 wt% water results in nearly 2 times higher thermal conductivities in all DESs. A further increase in the fraction of water to 75 wt%, causes an increase in the thermal conductivities of DESs ca. 3 times. This behaviour is mainly due to the change in the microscopic structure of the DESs (i.e. hydrogen bonding) upon the addition of water. Our simulations reveal that thermal conductivities of aqueous DESs do not significantly depend on temperature. We also show that thermal conductivities strongly depend on system-size. System-sizes bigger larger than ca. 5 nm should be used.

Molecular dynamics simulations are carried out to compute the intradiffusion coefficients of H2 and O2 in H2O for temperatures ranging from 275.15 to 975.15 K and pressures ranging from 0.1 to 200 MPa. These conditions span vapor, liquid, and supercritical conditions. For the vast majority of the state points examined, experimental data are not available. The accuracy of six H2 and six O2 force fields is tested in reproducing the available experimentally measured densities, self-diffusivities, and shear viscosities of the pure gas and the intradiffusivity of the gas in H2O. Namely, we screen the H2 force fields developed by Buch, Vrabec and co-workers, Hirschfelder et al., Cracknell, a modified Silvera-Goldman, and Marx and Nielaba. For O2, the force fields by Bohn et al., Miyano, Coon et al., Hansen et al., Vrabec et al., and Watanabe are tested. Overall, the force fields by Buch and Bohn for H2 and O2, respectively, were found to perform the best, and combined with the TIP4P/2005 H2O force field are used to compute the intradiffusivities in the entire temperature and pressure range. The new data are used to develop an engineering model that can predict the H2 and O2 intradiffusivity in vapor, liquid, and supercritical H2O. The new model uses 11 parameters and has an accuracy of 4-11%. The model is validated with other available experimental and simulation data for H2 and O2 in H2O and pure H2O. Aside from the extensive collection of new data for the intradiffusivities of H2 and O2 in H2O, we present new data for the densities, shear viscosities, and self-diffusivities of pure TIP4P/2005 H2O in the same wide temperature and pressure range. The new data and the engineering model presented here can be used for the design and optimization of chemical processes, for which the knowledge of H2 and O2 diffusivities in H2O is important.

The number of molecules used in a typical Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations is orders of magnitude lower than in the thermodynamic limit. It is therefore essential to correct diffusivities computed from Molecular Dynamics simulations for finite-size effects. We present a comprehensive review on finite-size effects of diffusion coefficients by considering self-, Maxwell–Stefan, and Fick diffusion coefficients in pure liquids, as well as binary, ternary, and quaternary mixtures. All finite-size corrections, both analytical and empirical, are discussed in detail. The finite-size effects of rotational and confined diffusion are also briefly discussed.

We present a new molecular simulation code, Brick-CFCMC, for performing Monte Carlo simulations using state-of-the-art simulation techniques. The Continuous Fractional Component (CFC) method is implemented for simulations in the NVT/NPT ensembles, the Gibbs Ensemble, the Grand-Canonical Ensemble, and the Reaction Ensemble. Molecule transfers are facilitated by the use of fractional molecules which significantly improve the efficiency of the simulations. With the CFC method, one can obtain phase equilibria and properties such as chemical potentials and partial molar enthalpies/volumes directly from a single simulation. It is possible to combine trial moves from different ensembles. This enables simulations of phase equilibria in a system where also a chemical reaction takes place. We demonstrate the applicability of our software by investigating the esterification of methanol with acetic acid in a two-phase system.

Slip lengths reported from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of water flow in graphene nanochannels show significant scatter in the literature. These discrepancies are in part due to the used water models. We demonstrate self-consistent comparisons of slip characteristics between the SPC, SPC/E, SPC/Fw, TIP3P, TIP4P, and TIP4P/2005 water models. The slip lengths are inferred using an analytical model that employs the shear viscosity of water and channel average velocities obtained from nonequilibrium MD simulations. First, viscosities for each water model are quantified using MD simulations of counterflowing, force-driven flows in periodic domains in the absence of physical walls. While the TIP4P/2005 model predicts water viscosity at the specified thermodynamic state with 1.7% error, the predictions of SPC/Fw and SPC/E models exhibit 13.9% and 23.1% deviations, respectively. Water viscosities obtained from SPC, TIP4P, and TIP3P models show larger deviations. Next, force-driven water flows in rigid (cold) and thermally vibrating (thermal) graphene nanochannels are simulated, resulting in pluglike velocity profiles. Large differences in the flow velocities are observed depending on the used water model and to a lesser extent on the choice of rigid vs thermal walls. Depending on the water model, the slip length of water on cold graphene walls varied between 34.2 nm and 62.9 nm, while the slip lengths of water on thermal graphene walls varied in the range of 38.1 nm-84.3 nm.

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are a new generation of green solvents, which are considered an environmentally friendly alternative to ionic liquids and volatile organic compounds. The addition of controlled amounts of water to DESs has a significant effect on their microscopic structure and thus on their thermodynamic and transport properties. In this way, DESs can be modified, leading to solvents with improved characteristics. In this work, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are performed to obtain a better understanding of the relation between the microscopic structure, molecular interactions, and thermophysical properties of aqueous reline and ethaline solutions at temperatures ranging from 303.15 to 363.15 K. For both reline and ethaline solutions, the hydrogen bond (HB) networks disappear with increasing mass fraction of water, and the intensity of radial distribution function (RDF) peaks decreases. For a mass fraction of water of 40%, most of the HBs between the compounds of reline and ethaline are broken, and DESs are fully dissolved in water. Consequently, a monotonic decrease in viscosities and an increase in self-diffusion coefficients are observed. Ionic conductivities show a nonmonotonic behavior with increasing water content. Up to 60% water mass fraction, the ionic conductivities increase with increasing water content. A further increase in the mass fraction of water decreases conductivities. For all studied systems, the HB network and the peaks of RDFs show relatively small changes for water mass fractions below 5% and beyond 40%. The MD results show that viscosities decrease with temperature, while diffusivities and ionic conductivities increase. The effect of the temperature on the structure of DES-water mixtures is negligible.