Molecular dynamics of combustion reactions in supercritical carbon dioxide. Part 4: boxed MD study of formyl radical dissociation and recombination

Molecular Dynamics of Combustion Reactions in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide. 6. Computational Kinetics of Reactions between Hydrogen Atom and Oxygen Molecule H + O2 ⇌ HO + O and H + O2 ⇌ HO2

Reactions of the hydrogen atom and the oxygen molecule are among the most important ones in the hydrogen and hydrocarbon oxidation mechanisms, including combustion in a supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂) environment, known as oxy-combustion or the Allam cycle. Development of these energy technologies requires understanding of chemical kinetics of H + O₂ ⇌ HO + O and H + O₂ ⇌ HO₂ in high pressures and concentrations of CO₂. Here, we combine quantum treatment of the reaction system by the transition state theory with classical molecular dynamics simulation and the multistate empirical valence bonding method to treat environmental effects. Potential of mean force in the sCO₂ solvent at various temperatures 1000-2000 K and pressures 100-400 atm was obtained. The reaction rate for H + O₂ ⇌ HO + O was found to be pressure-independent and described by the extended Arrhenius equation 4.23 × 10^-7 T^-0.73 exp(-21 855.2 cal/mol/RT) cm³/molecule/s, while the reaction rate H + O₂ ⇌ HO₂ is pressure-dependent and can be expressed as 5.22 × 10^-2 T^-2.86 exp(-7247.4 cal/mol/RT) cm³/molecule/s at 300 atm.

Molecular Dynamics of Combustion Reactions in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide. Part 5: Computational Study of Ethane Dissociation and Recombination Reactions C2H6 ⇌ CH3 + CH3

Fossil fuel oxy-combustion is an emerging technology where the habitual nitrogen diluent is replaced by high-pressure supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂), which increases the efficiency of energy conversion. In this study, the chemical kinetics of the combustion reaction C₂H₆ ⇌ CH₃ + CH₃ in the sCO₂ environment is predicted at 30-1000 atm and 1000-2000 K. We adopt a multiscale approach, where the reactive complex is treated quantum mechanically in rigid rotor/harmonic oscillator approximation, while environment effects at different densities are taken into account by the potential of mean force, produced with classical molecular dynamics (MD). Here, we used boxed MD, where enhanced sampling of infrequent events of barrier crossing is accomplished without application of the bias potential. The multistate empirical valence bond model is applied to describe free radical formation accurately at the cost of the classical force field. Predicted rates at low densities agree well with the literature data. Rate constants at 300 atm are 2.41 × 10¹⁴ T^-0.20 exp(-77.03 kcal/mol/ RT) 1/s for ethane dissociation and 8.44 × 10^-19 T^1.42 exp(19.89 kcal/mol/ RT) cm³/molecule/s for methyl-methyl recombination.