Zeolite diffusion, simulations methane

Diffusion Coefficient (D) and Activation Energy (E ) Data for the Diffusion of Methane in Various Zeolites Determined from Simulations and Experimental Methods ... 

Other simulations of the diffusion of methane in zeolite A have been performed by Cohen de Lara et al. (50), who reported calculations for a single methane molecule in an a-cage of zeolite A. They used a 7-cage array as a model for the zeolite, with cations fully occupying the SI sites, half-filling the SII sites, and occupying only 1 /12th of the Sill sites. Ionic... 

Moreover, it is noted that this method can be applied to studies of slow diffusion, inaccessible in MD simulations. The approach seems very flexible in that it is applicable to a wide range of pore structures and fluids, provided the free-energy barriers are sufficiently high for transition state theory to be valid. The method therefore will fail at sufficiently high temperatures. Studies on diffusion of methane, ethane, and propane in LTL- and LTA-type zeolites were considered. 

Fig. 11 Result of MD simulations of the intracrystalline diffusion of methane in a cation-free zeolite LTA at 300 K as a function of the Lennard-Jones distance between methane and the oxygen of the zeolite lattice for a concentration of 1 broken line) and 6 (full line) molecules per cavity. From [117,118] with permission...

Bandyopadhyay and Yashonath (31), in an extension of their work on MD studies of noble gas diffusion, presented MD results for methane diffusion in NaY and NaCaA zeolites. The zeolite models were the same as those used in the noble gas simulations (13, 15, 17, 18, 20, 28, 29) and the zeolite lattice was held rigid. The methane molecule was approximated as a single interaction center and the guest-host potential parameters were calculated from data of Bezus et al. (49) (for the dispersive term) and by setting the force on a pair of atoms equal to zero at the sum of their van der Waals radii (for the repulsive term). Simulations were run for 600 ps with a time step of 10 fs. 

Other flexible framework calculations of methane diffusion in silicalite have been performed by Catlow et al. (64, 66). A more rigorous potential was used to simulate the motion of the zeolite lattice, developed by Vessal et al. (78), whose parameters were derived by fitting to reproduce the static structural and elastic properties of a-quartz. The guest molecule interactions were taken from the work of Kiselev et al. (79), with methane treated as a flexible polyatomic molecule. Concentrations of 1 and 2 methane molecules per 2 unit cells were considered. Simulations were done with a time step of 1 fs and ran for 120 ps. 

The diffusion coefficient was estimated to be 4 x 10 9 m2/s. Experimental values for benzene in faujasites range from 10 10 to 10"13 m2/s, depending on the measurement technique (24, 97). PFG-NMR measurements are the closest to the MD value, which was admitted by the authors to be a crude estimate (mainly on grounds of a short simulation and inflexible molecules). The simulation time was too short to permit a calculation of the residence times of the benzene at either the cation or the window site or inside a particular cage. The cage residence times were estimated to be at least an order of magnitude longer than those for methane in NaY zeolite (43). 

Molecular-dynamic simulations are characterized by a solution of Newton s laws of motion for the molecules travelling through the zeolite pore system under control of the force field given by the properties of the host lattice, by interactions between the host and the molecules, and by interactions between the molecules. To date this has been possible only for the diffusion of simple molecules (e.g. methane or benzene) inside a zeolite lattice of limited dimensions [29, 37, 54], To take into account the effects of a chemical reaction as well would require quantum-mechanical considerations however, such simulations are in their infancy. 

The derivation of Dt from coherent QENS is similar to a computation of Dt from the fluctuations in an equilibrium density distribution. This was accomplished by Tepper and co-workers for Ar in AIPO4-5 [6]. Using the Green-Kubo formahsm, they were able to extract this non-equilibrium quantity from just one equihbrium simulation. Moreover, the calculations being performed in reciprocal space, the variation of the diffusivity upon the wave vector was used to check when the system was in the linear regime [6]. The first application of non-equihbrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) to zeolites was performed by Maginn et al. on methane in sihcalite [7]. Standard equi-libriiun MD techniques were later used by Sholl and co-workers to determine the concentration dependence of diffusivities [8]. 

The exclusion of a mutual passage of the molecules within the zeolite channels is crucial for the occurrence of single-file diffusion. First attempts to perform such discriminations by MD simulations with methane and ethane in AIPO4-5 have been presented in [27-29]. In these studies both the methane and ethane molecules are found to be readily able to pass each other. Since such simulations are extremely sensitive to the potentials used [30-34], the evidence of such results is still under discussion. 

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