Dissociation line and driving force for nucleation of the nitrogen hydrate from computer simulation. II. Effect of multiple occupancy

TL;DR

This study uses computer simulations to determine the dissociation line and nucleation driving force of nitrogen hydrate, finding negligible effects of multiple occupancy on these properties across a range of pressures, aligning well with experimental data.

Contribution

It is the first simulation study to analyze how multiple occupancy affects the nucleation driving force of nitrogen hydrate with sII structure.

Findings

Occupancy has negligible effect on dissociation temperature.

Occupancy has negligible effect on nucleation driving force.

Simulation results agree with experimental data.

Abstract

In this work, we determine the dissociation line of the nitrogen (N$_{2}$) hydrate by computer simulation using the TIP4P/Ice model for water and the TraPPE force field for N$_{2}$. This work is the natural extension of our previous paper in which the dissociation temperature of the N$_2$ hydrate has been obtained at $500$, $1000$, and $1500\,\text{bar}$ [\emph{J. Chem. Phys.} \textbf{159}, 224707 (2023)] using the solubility method and assuming single occupancy. We extend our previous study and determine the dissociation temperature of the N$_2$ hydrate at different pressures, from $500$ to $4500\,\text{bar}$, taking into account single and double occupancy of the N$_{2}$ molecules in the hydrate structure. We calculate the solubility of N$_2$ in the aqueous solution, as a function of temperature, when it is in contact with a N$_{2}$-rich liquid phase and when in contact with the hydrate phase with single and double occupancy via planar interfaces. Both curves intersect at a certain temperature that determines the dissociation temperature at a given pressure. We observe a negligible effect of the occupancy on the dissociation temperature. Our findings are in very good agreement with the experimental data taken from the literature. We have also obtained the driving force for nucleation of the hydrate as a function of the temperature and occupancy at several pressures. As in the case of the dissociation line, the effect of the occupancy on the driving force for nucleation is negligible. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the effect of the occupancy on the driving force for nucleation of a hydrate that exhibits sII crystallographic structure is studied from computer simulation.