[67] Simulating the Nucleation of Water/Ethanol and Water/n-Nonane Mixtures:  Mutual Enhancement and Two-Pathway Mechanism

B. Chen, J.I. Siepmann, and M.L. Klein

J. Am. Chem. Soc. 125, 3113-3118 (2003)

Publication Abstract

A combination of the aggregation-volume-bias and configurational-bias Monte Carlo algorithms and the umbrella sampling technique was applied to investigate two different binary vapor−liquid nucleation systems:  water/ethanol and water/n-nonane. The simulations are able to reproduce the different nonideal nucleation behavior observed experimentally for these two systems, i.e., the mutual enhancement of nucleation rates for water/ethanol mixtures and the two-pathway nucleation for water/n-nonane mixtures. Structural analysis provides microscopic explanations for the observed nucleation behavior. In particular, the simulations show a large and size-dependent surface enrichment of ethanol in the water/ethanol droplets, which confirms the previous experimental interpretation for this system. The immiscibility observed even for small water/n-nonane clusters causes the two-pathway nucleation mechanism.

Simulating the Nucleation of Water/Ethanol and Water/n-Nonane Mixtures:  Mutual Enhancement and Two-Pathway Mechanism