Effect of the alkyl chain and composition on the thermodynamics of mixing of small alcohols and water

Unraveling aqueous alcohol freezing: new theoretical tools from graph theory to extract molecular processes in MD simulations

Ice clouds in the upper troposphere are crucial for regulating Earth's climate by affecting stratospheric humidity and the global radiative balance. A key aspect of cloud formation is heterogeneous ice nucleation, influenced by the surface properties of aerosol particles, particularly those with chemical groups capable of hydrogen bonding with water. Short-chained alcohols, such as 1-pentanol and 3-hexanol, which readily accumulate at the liquid-vapor interface, are of particular interest due to their potential impact on ice nucleation, despite their role in freezing processes being underexplored. To address this gap, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations combined with topological graph analysis (GT) were used to investigate the onset of water-alcohol surface freezing at temperatures ranging from 283 K to 192 K. Both macroscopic properties, like surface tension and solubility, and microscopic properties, including the incorporation of alcohols within the 2D-film of surface water, were analyzed. The results indicate that adsorbed films of 1-pentanol and 3-hexanol significantly influence the onset of surface freezing, with 1-pentanol forming more organized and efficiently packed surface layers compared to 3-hexanol, thus reducing surface tension more effectively. The novel application of topological graph analysis based on the representation of intra- and inter-molecular interactions in a graph revealed the insertion of alcohol molecules into the collective hydrogen-bonded 2D network at the water surface, promoting the enhanced formation of six-membered H-bonded rings at lower temperatures. This effect was particularly pronounced with 1-pentanol, which proved more efficient than 3-hexanol in facilitating the creation of ice-like structures-a critical precursor to ice formation. These findings offer valuable insights into the processes governing cloud formation and ice nucleation, with significant implications for understanding climate science and cloud dynamics.

Study of phase equilibria and thermodynamic properties of liquid mixtures using the integral equation theory: Application to water and alcohol mixtures

A theoretical method for calculating the thermodynamic properties and phase equilibria of liquid-liquid mixtures using the integral equation theory is proposed. The solvation chemical potentials of the two components are evaluated by the integral equation theory and the isothermal-isobaric variation of the total density with composition is determined to satisfy the Gibbs-Duhem relation. Given the density of a pure component, the method can calculate the densities of the mixture at any composition. Furthermore, it can treat the phase equilibrium without thermodynamic inconsistency with respect to the Gibbs-Duhem relation. This method was combined with the reference interaction-site model integral equation theory and applied to mixtures of water + 1-alcohol by changing the alcohol from methanol to 1-butanol. The destabilization of the mixing Gibbs energy by increasing the hydrophobicity of the alcohol and demixing of the water-butanol mixture were reproduced. However, quantitative agreement with experiments is not satisfactory, and further improvements of the integral equation theory and the molecular models are required.

Dipolar Dispersion Forces in Water-Methanol Mixtures: Enhancement of Water Interactions upon Dilution Drives Self-Association

Mixtures of short-chain alcohols and water produce anomalous thermodynamic and structural quantities, including molecular segregation into water-rich and alcohol-rich components. Herein, we used molecular dynamics simulations with polarizable models to investigate interactions that could drive the self-association of water molecules in mixtures with methanol (MeOH). As water was diluted with MeOH, significant changes in the distribution of molecules and solvation properties occurred, where water exhibited a clear preference for self-association. When common structural quantities were analyzed, it was found that there was a clear reduction in water-water hydrogen bonding and tetrahedral order (both in terms of typical bulk behavior), contrary to the observed water self-association. However, when dipolar dispersion forces between all molecules as a function of system composition were analyzed, it was found that water-water dipolar interactions became significantly stronger with dilution (6-fold stronger interaction in 75% MeOH compared to 0% MeOH). This was only observed for water, where MeOH-MeOH interactions became weaker as the systems were more dilute in MeOH. These forces result from specific dipole orientations, likely occurring to adopt lower energy configurations (i.e., head-to-tail or antiparallel). For water, this may result from lost other interactions (e.g., hydrogen bonding), leading to more rotational freedom between the dipole moments. These intriguing changes in dipolar interactions, which directly result from structural changes, can therefore explain, in part, the driving force for water self-association in MeOH-water mixtures.