Molecular dynamics simulations were performed for the prediction of the finite-size effects of Maxwell-Stefan diffusion coefficients of molecular mixtures and a wide variety of binary Lennard–Jones systems. A strong dependency of computed diffusivities on the system size was observed. Computed diffusivities were found to increase with the number of molecules. We propose a correction for the extrapolation of Maxwell–Stefan diffusion coefficients to the thermodynamic limit, based on the study by Yeh and Hummer (J. Phys. Chem. B20041081587315879). The proposed correction is a function of the viscosity of the system, the size of the simulation box, and the thermodynamic factor, which is a measure for the nonideality of the mixture. Verification is carried out for more than 200 distinct binary Lennard–Jones systems, as well as 9 binary systems of methanol, water, ethanol, acetone, methylamine, and carbon tetrachloride. Significant deviations between finite-size Maxwell–Stefan diffusivities and the corresponding diffusivities at the thermodynamic limit were found for mixtures close to demixing. In these cases, the finite-size correction can be even larger than the simulated (finite-size) Maxwell–Stefan diffusivity. Our results show that considering these finite-size effects is crucial and that the suggested correction allows for reliable computations.

We present a new plugin for LAMMPS for on-the-fly computation of transport properties (OCTP) in equilibrium molecular dynamics. OCTP computes the self- and Maxwell–Stefan diffusivities, bulk and shear viscosities, and thermal conductivities of pure fluids and mixtures in a single simulation. OCTP is the first implementation in LAMMPS that uses the Einstein relations combined with the order-n algorithm for the efficient sampling of dynamic variables. OCTP has low computational requirements and is easy to use because it follows the native input file format of LAMMPS. A tool for calculating the radial distribution function (RDF) of the fluid beyond the cutoff radius, while taking into account the system size effects, is also part of the new plugin. The RDFs computed from OCTP are needed to obtain the thermodynamic factor, which relates Maxwell–Stefan and Fick diffusivities. To demonstrate the efficiency of the new plugin, the transport properties of an equimolar mixture of water–methanol were computed at 298 K and 1 bar.

The family of M-MOF-74, with M = Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Ni, Ti, V, and Zn, provides opportunities for numerous energy related gas separation applications. The pore structure of M-MOF-74 exhibits a high internal surface area and an exceptionally large adsorption capacity. The chemical environment of the adsorbate molecule in M-MOF-74 can be tuned by exchanging the metal ion incorporated in the structure. To optimize materials for a given separation process, insights into how the choice of the metal ion affects the interaction strength with adsorbate molecules and how to model these interactions are essential. Here, we quantitatively highlight the importance of polarization by comparing the proposed polarizable force field to orbital interaction energies from DFT calculations. Adsorption isotherms and heats of adsorption are computed for CO2, CH4, and their mixtures in M-MOF-74 with all 10 metal ions. The results are compared to experimental data, and to previous simulation results using nonpolarizable force fields derived from quantum mechanics. To the best of our knowledge, the developed polarizable force field is the only one so far trying to cover such a large set of possible metal ions. For the majority of metal ions, our simulations are in good agreement with experiments, demonstrating the effectiveness of our polarizable potential and the transferability of the adopted approach.

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On the short term, carbon capture is a viable solution to reduce human-induced CO2 emissions, which requires an energy efficient separation of CO2. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) may offer opportunities for carbon capture and other industrially relevant separations. Especially, MOFs with embedded open metal sites have been shown to be promising. Molecular simulation is a useful tool to predict the performance of MOFs even before the synthesis of the material. This reduces the experimental effort, and the selection process of the most suitable MOF for a particular application can be accelerated. To describe the interactions between open metal sites and guest molecules in molecular simulation is challenging. Polarizable force fields have potential to improve the description of such specific interactions. Previously, we tested the applicability of polarizable force fields for CO2 in M-MOF-74 by verifying the ability to reproduce experimental measurements. Here, we develop a predictive polarizable force field for CO2 in M-MOF-74 (M = Co, Fe, Mg, Mn, Ni, Zn) without the requirement of experimental data. The force field is derived from energies predicted from quantum mechanics. The procedure is easily transferable to other MOFs. To incorporate explicit polarization, the induced dipole method is applied between the framework and the guest molecule. Atomic polarizabilities are assigned according to the literature. Only the Lennard-Jones parameters of the open metal sites are parameterized to reproduce energies from quantum mechanics. The created polarizable force field for CO2 in M-MOF-74 can describe the adsorption well and even better than that in our previous work.