A computer simulation study of racemic mixtures

Abstract

A simple model for a chiral molecule is proposed. The model consists of a central atom bonded to four different atoms in tetrahedral coordination. Two different potentials were used to describe the pair potentials between atoms: the hard sphere potential and the Lennard-Jones potential. For both the hard sphere and the Lennard-Jones chiral models, computer simulations have been performed for the pure enantiomers and also for the racemic mixture. The racemic mixture consisted of an equimolar mixture of the two optically active enantiomers. It is found that the equations of state are the same, within statistical uncertainty, for the pure enantiomer fluid and for the racemic mixture. Only at high pressures does the racemic mixture seem to have a higher density, for a given pressure, than the pure enantiomer. Concering the structure, no difference is found in the site-site correlation functions between like and unlike molecules in the racemic mixture either at low or at high densities. However, small differences are found for the site-site correlations of the pure enantiomer and those of the racemic mixtures. In the Lennard-Jones model, similar conclusions are drawn. The extension of Wertheim's first-order perturbation theory, denoted bonded hard sphere theory (ARCHER, A. L., and JACKSON, G., 1991, Molec. Phys., 73, 881; AMOS, M. D., and JACKSON, G., 1992, J. chem. Phys., 96, 4604), successfully reproduces the simulation results for the hard chiral model. Virial coefficients of the hard chiral model up to the fourth have also been evaluated. Again, no differences are found between virial coefficients of the pure fluid and of the racemic mixture. All the results of this work illustrate the quasi-ideal behaviour of racemic mixtures in the fluid phase.