Temperature dependence of diffusion coefficient of carbon monoxide in water: A molecular dynamics study

Abstract

In the present work, molecular dynamics simulations of a mixture of carbon monoxide (CO) gas in SPC/E water (H2O) with CO as a solute and water as a solvent have been performed to understand the self-diffusion coefficient of the components, i.e. CO and water along with the mutual diffusion coefficients and structural properties of the system by studying the radial distribution function (RDF) of the components present in the system at different temperatures of 293K, 303K, 313K, 323K, and 333K. The mole fraction of CO in the system is 0.018 and that of water is 0.982. The solvent–solvent, solute–solute and solute–solvent radial distribution functions have been estimated to study the structural properties of the system. The self-diffusion coefficient of CO is calculated using mean square displacement (MSD) and velocity autocorrelation function (VACF) and that of water is estimated using MSD method only. The self-diffusion coefficient of CO agrees within around 20% of the experimental results and that of water agrees within around 10% of the experimental results. The mutual diffusion coefficient of solute–solvent is calculated using Darken's relation. The temperature dependence of self-diffusion coefficients of CO and water and mutual diffusion coefficients of CO in water all follow the Arrhenius behavior from where we estimate the activation energy of the diffusion process. Thus estimated activation energies also agree to experimental values.