Unusual species of methane hydrate detected in nanoporous media using solid state 13C NMR.

Methane is considered to be a cubic structure I (CS-I) clathrate hydrate former, although in a number of instances, small amounts of structure II (CS-II) clathrate hydrate have been transiently observed as well. In this work, solid-state magic angle spinning 13C NMR spectra of methane hydrate formed at low temperatures inside silica-based nanoporous materials with pores in the range of 3.8-20.0 nm (CPG-20, Vycor, and MCM-41) show methane in several different environments. In addition to methane encapsulated in the dodecahedral 512 (D) and tetrakaidecahedral 51262 (T) cages typical of the CS-I clathrate hydrate phase, methane guests in pentakaidecahedral 51263 (P) and hexakaidecahedral 51264 (H) cages are also identified, and these appear to be stabilized for extended periods of time. The ratio of methane guests among the D and T cages determined from the line intensities is significantly different from that of bulk CS-I samples and indicates that both CS-I and CS-II are present as the dominant species. This is the first observation of methane in P cages, and the possible structures in which they could be present are discussed. Broad and relatively strong methane peaks, which are also observed in the spectra, can be related to methane dissolved in an amorphous component of water adjacent to the pore walls. Nanoconfinement and interaction with the pore walls clearly have a strong influence on the hydrate formed and may reflect species present in the early stages of hydrate growth.

Molecular dynamics simulations of interfacial structure, dynamics, and interfacial tension of tetrabutylammonium bromide aqueous solution in the presence of methane and carbon dioxide.

The interfacial behavior of tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBAB) aqueous solutions in the absence of gas and the presence of methane and carbon dioxide gases is studied by molecular dynamics simulations. The aqueous TBAB phase, at concentrations similar to the solid semiclathrate hydrate (1:38 mol ratio), has a smaller interfacial tension and an increase in the gas molecules adsorbed at the interface compared to that in pure water. Both these factors may contribute to facilitating the uptake of the gases into the solid phase during the process of semiclathrate hydrate formation. At similar gas pressures, CO2 is adsorbed preferentially compared to CH4, giving it a higher surface density, due to the stronger intermolecular interactions of CO2 molecules of the solution at the interface. The increase in relative adsorption of CH4 at the solution surface compared to that in pure water surface is due to the hydrophobic interactions between the n-alkyl chains of the TBA+ cation and methane gas.

Molecular dynamics simulations of interfacial properties of the CO2-water and CO2-CH4-water systems.

Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to study the interfacial behavior of the pure carbon dioxide-water system and a binary 40:60 mol. % gas mixture of (carbon dioxide + methane)-water at the temperatures of 275.15 K and 298.15 K and pressures near 4 MPa for CO2 and up to 10 MPa for methane. The simulations are used to study the dynamic equilibrium of the gases at the water-gas interface, to determine the z-density profiles for the gases and water, and calculate the interfacial tension γ under the different temperature/pressure conditions close to those of the formation of clathrate hydrates of these gases. At the same hydrostatic gas phase pressure, the CO2-water interface has a lower interfacial tension than the CH4-water interface. A greater number of CO2 molecules, as much as three times more than methane at the same pressure, were adsorbed at the interfacial layer, which reflects the stronger electrostatic quadrupolar and van der Waals interactions between CO2 and water molecules at the interface. The water surfaces are covered by less than a monolayer of gas even when the pressure of the system goes near the saturation pressure of CO2. The surface adsorbed molecules are in dynamic equilibrium with the bulk gas and with exchange between the gas and interface regions occurring repeatedly within the timescale of the simulations. The effects of the changes in the CO2-water interfacial tension with external temperature and pressure conditions on the formation of the clathrate hydrates and other CO2 capture and sequestration processes are discussed.

Interfacial properties of hydrocarbon/water systems predicted by molecular dynamic simulations.

The presence of small hydrocarbons is known to reduce the interfacial tension of the gas-water interface, and this phenomenon can affect the formation of the clathrate hydrates of these gases. In this work, the interfacial behavior of the pure methane-, ethane-, and propane-water, and the ternary 90:7:3 mol. % gas mixture of (methane + ethane + propane)-water were studied with molecular dynamics simulations. The interfacial tension, γ, and z-density profiles for the gases and water from simulations of the gas-water systems were determined at the temperatures of 275.15 and 298.15 K, and pressures up to 10 MPa for methane and up to near the experimental saturation pressures of ethane and propane. The goal is to accurately calculate the interfacial tension for the hydrocarbon/water systems and to analyze the molecular behaviors at the interfaces which lead to the observed trends. At the same hydrostatic gas phase pressure, propane, ethane, and methane reduce the gas-water interfacial tension in that order. The local density of the gas molecules at the interface is enhanced relative to the bulk gas, and it was determined that about 13%-20%, 33%-40%, and 54%-59% of the gas molecules in the simulation congregated at the interfaces for the CH4-, C2H6-, and C3H8-water systems, respectively, at the different simulated hydrostatic pressure ranges. For all gases in the pressure range studied, a complete monolayer of gas had not formed at the water interface. Furthermore, a dynamic equilibrium with fast exchange between molecules at the interface and in the gas phase was observed. For the gas mixture, deviations were observed between total calculated interfacial tension, γmix, and the "ideal mixture" value, ∑xiγi,pure, calculated from the interfacial tensions of the pure gases, where xi is the mole fraction of each substance in the simulation. Some possible implications of the results on the mechanism of clathrate hydrate formation are discussed.

Molecular dynamics simulations of nano-confined methanol and methanol-water mixtures between infinite graphite plates: Structure and dynamics.

Molecular dynamics simulations are used to investigate microscopic structures and dynamics of methanol and methanol-water binary mixture films confined between hydrophobic infinite parallel graphite plate slits with widths, H, in the range of 7-20 Å at 300 K. The initial geometric densities of the liquids were chosen to be the same as bulk methanol at the same temperature. For the two narrowest slit widths, two smaller initial densities were also considered. For the nano-confined system with H = 7 Å and high pressure, a solid-like hexagonal arrangement of methanol molecules arranged perpendicular to the plates is observed which reflects the closest packing of the molecules and partially mirrors the structure of the underlying graphite structure. At lower pressures and for larger slit widths, in the contact layer, the methanol molecules prefer having the C-O bond oriented parallel to the walls. Layered structures of methanol parallel to the wall were observed, with contact layers and additional numbers of central layers depending on the particular slit width. For methanol-water mixtures, simulations of solutions with different composition were performed between infinite graphite slits with H = 10 and 20 Å at 300 K. For the nanoslit with H = 10 Å, in the solution mixtures, three layers of molecules form, but for all mole fractions of methanol, methanol molecules are excluded from the central fluid layer. In the nanopore with H = 20 Å, more than three fluid layers are formed and methanol concentrations are enhanced near the confining plates walls compared to the average solution stoichiometry. The self-diffusion coefficients of methanol and water molecules in the solution show strong dependence on the solution concentration. The solution mole fractions with minimal diffusivity are the same in confined and non-confined bulk methanol-water mixtures.

The anomalous halogen bonding interactions between chlorine and bromine with water in clathrate hydrates.

Clathrate hydrate phases of Cl2 and Br2 guest molecules have been known for about 200 years. The crystal structure of these phases was recently re-determined with high accuracy by single crystal X-ray diffraction. In these structures, the water oxygen-halogen atom distances are determined to be shorter than the sum of the van der Waals radii, which indicates the action of some type of non-covalent interaction between the dihalogens and water molecules. Given that in the hydrate phases both lone pairs of each water oxygen atom are engaged in hydrogen bonding with other water molecules of the lattice, the nature of the oxygen-halogen interactions may not be the standard halogen bonds characterized recently in the solid state materials and enzyme-substrate compounds. The nature of the halogen-water interactions for the Cl2 and Br2 molecules in two isolated clathrate hydrate cages has recently been studied with ab initio calculations and Natural Bond Order analysis (Ochoa-Resendiz et al. J. Chem. Phys. 2016, 145, 161104). Here we present the results of ab initio calculations and natural localized molecular orbital analysis for Cl2 and Br2 guests in all cage types observed in the cubic structure I and tetragonal structure I clathrate hydrates to characterize the orbital interactions between the dihalogen guests and water. Calculations with isolated cages and cages with one shell of coordinating molecules are considered. The computational analysis is used to understand the nature of the halogen bonding in these materials and to interpret the guest positions in the hydrate cages obtained from the X-ray crystal structures.

Understanding decomposition and encapsulation energies of structure I and II clathrate hydrates.

When compressed with water or ice under high pressure and low temperature conditions, some gases form solid gas hydrate inclusion compounds which have higher melting points than ice under those pressures. In this work, we study the balance of the guest-water and water-water interaction energies that lead to the formation of the clathrate hydrate phases. In particular, molecular dynamics simulations with accurate water potentials are used to study the energetics of the formation of structure I (sI) and II (sII) clathrate hydrates of methane, ethane, and propane. The dissociation enthalpy of the clathrate hydrate phases, the encapsulation enthalpy of methane, ethane, and propane guests in the corresponding phases, and the average bonding enthalpy of water molecules are calculated and compared with accurate calorimetric measurements and previous classical and quantum mechanical calculations, when available. The encapsulation energies of methane, ethane, and propane guests stabilize the small and large sI and sII hydrate cages, with the larger molecules giving larger encapsulation energies. The average water-water interactions are weakened in the sI and sII phases compared to ice. The relative magnitudes of the van der Waals potential energy in ice and the hydrate phases are similar, but in the ice phase, the electrostatic interactions are stronger. The stabilizing guest-water "hydrophobic" interactions compensate for the weaker water-water interactions and stabilize the hydrate phases. A number of common assumptions regarding the guest-cage water interactions are used in the van der Waals-Platteeuw statistical mechanical theory to predict the clathrate hydrate phase stability under different pressure-temperature conditions. The present calculations show that some of these assumptions may not accurately reflect the physical nature of the interactions between guest molecules and the lattice waters.

Molecular simulations and density functional theory calculations of bromine in clathrate hydrate phases.

Bromine forms a tetragonal clathrate hydrate structure (TS-I) very rarely observed in clathrate hydrates of other guest substances. The detailed structure, energetics, and dynamics of Br2 and Cl2 in TS-I and cubic structure I (CS-I) clathrate hydrates are studied in this work using molecular dynamics and quantum chemical calculations. X-ray diffraction studies show that the halogen-water-oxygen distances in the cages of these structures are shorter than the sum of the van der Waals radii of halogen and oxygen atoms. This suggests that the stabilizing effects of halogen bonding or other non-covalent interactions (NCIs) may contribute to the formation of the unique tetragonal bromine hydrate structure. We performed molecular dynamics simulations of Br2 and Cl2 clathrate hydrates using our previously developed five-site charge models for the dihalogen molecules [Dureckova et al. Can. J. Chem. 93, 864 (2015)] which reproduce the computed electrostatic potentials of the dihalogens and account for the electropositive σ-hole of the halogen bond donor (the dihalogen). Analysis of the radial distribution functions, enthalpies of encapsulation, velocity and orientation autocorrelation functions, and polar angle distributions are carried out for Br2 and Cl2 guests in various cages to contrast the properties of these guests in the TS-I and CS-I phases. Quantum chemical partial geometry optimizations of Br2 and Cl2 guests in the hydrate cages using the M06-2X functional give short halogen-water distances compatible with values observed in X-ray diffraction experiments. NCI plots of guest-cage structures are generated to qualitatively show the relative strength of the non-bonding interactions between dihalogens and water molecules. The differences between behaviors of Br2 and Cl2 guests in the hydrate cages may explain why bromine forms the unique TS-I phase.

Methanol incorporation in clathrate hydrates and the implications for oil and gas pipeline flow assurance and icy planetary bodies.

One of the best-known uses of methanol is as antifreeze. Methanol is used in large quantities in industrial applications to prevent methane clathrate hydrate blockages from forming in oil and gas pipelines. Methanol is also assigned a major role as antifreeze in giving icy planetary bodies (e.g., Titan) a liquid subsurface ocean and/or an atmosphere containing significant quantities of methane. In this work, we reveal a previously unverified role for methanol as a guest in clathrate hydrate cages. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and NMR experiments showed that at temperatures near 273 K, methanol is incorporated in the hydrate lattice along with other guest molecules. The amount of included methanol depends on the preparative method used. For instance, single-crystal XRD shows that at low temperatures, the methanol molecules are hydrogen-bonded in 4.4% of the small cages of tetrahydrofuran cubic structure II hydrate. At higher temperatures, NMR spectroscopy reveals a number of methanol species incorporated in hydrocarbon hydrate lattices. At temperatures characteristic of icy planetary bodies, vapor deposits of methanol, water, and methane or xenon show that the presence of methanol accelerates hydrate formation on annealing and that there is unusually complex phase behavior as revealed by powder XRD and NMR spectroscopy. The presence of cubic structure I hydrate was confirmed and a unique hydrate phase was postulated to account for the data. Molecular dynamics calculations confirmed the possibility of methanol incorporation into the hydrate lattice and show that methanol can favorably replace a number of methane guests.

Phase Transition of a Structure†II Cubic Clathrate Hydrate to a Tetragonal Form.

The crystal structure and phase transition of cubic structure II (sII) binary clathrate hydrates of methane (CH4 ) and propanol are reported from powder X-ray diffraction measurements. The deformation of host water cages at the cubic-tetragonal phase transition of 2-propanol+CH4 hydrate, but not 1-propanol+CH4 hydrate, was observed below about 110 K. It is shown that the deformation of the host water cages of 2-propanol+CH4 hydrate can be explained by the restriction of the motion of 2-propanol within the 5(12) 6(4) host water cages. This result provides a low-temperature structure due to a temperature-induced symmetry-lowering transition of clathrate hydrate. This is the first example of a cubic structure of the common clathrate hydrate families at a fixed composition.

Why ice-binding type I antifreeze protein acts as a gas hydrate crystal inhibitor.

Antifreeze proteins (AFPs) prevent ice growth by binding to a specific ice plane. Some AFPs have been found to inhibit the formation of gas hydrates which are a serious safety and operational challenge for the oil and gas industry. Molecular dynamics simulations are used to determine the mechanism of action of the winter flounder AFP (wf-AFP) in inhibiting methane hydrate growth. The wf-AFP adsorbs onto the methane hydrate surface via cooperative binding of a set of hydrophobic methyl pendant groups to the empty half-cages at the hydrate/water interface. Each binding set is composed of the methyl side chain of threonine and two alanine residues, four and seven places further down in the sequence of the protein. Understanding the principle of action of AFPs can lead to the rational design of green hydrate inhibitor molecules with potential superior performance.

A molecular dynamics study of guest-host hydrogen bonding in alcohol clathrate hydrates.

Clathrate hydrates are typically stabilized by suitably sized hydrophobic guest molecules. However, it has been experimentally reported that isomers of amyl-alcohol C5H11OH can be enclosed into the 5(12)6(4) cages in structure II (sII) clathrate hydrates, even though the effective radii of the molecules are larger than the van der Waals radii of the cages. To reveal the mechanism of the anomalous enclathration of hydrophilic molecules, we performed ab initio and classical molecular dynamics simulations (MD) and analyzed the structure and dynamics of a guest-host hydrogen bond for sII 3-methyl-1-butanol and structure H (sH) 2-methyl-2-butanol clathrate hydrates. The simulations clearly showed the formation of guest-host hydrogen bonds and the incorporation of the O-H group of 3-methyl-1-butanol guest molecules into the framework of the sII 5(12)6(4) cages, with the remaining hydrophobic part of the amyl-alcohol molecule well accommodated into the cages. The calculated vibrational spectra of alcohol O-H bonds showed large frequency shifts due to the strong guest-host hydrogen bonding. The 2-methyl-2-butanol guests form strong hydrogen bonds with the cage water molecules in the sH clathrate, but are not incorporated into the water framework. By comparing the structures of the alcohols in the hydrate phases, the effect of the location of O-H groups in the butyl chain of the guest molecules on the crystalline structure of the clathrate hydrates is indicated.

Formation of methane nano-bubbles during hydrate decomposition and their effect on hydrate growth.

Molecular dynamic simulations are performed to study the conditions for methane nano-bubble formation during methane hydrate dissociation in the presence of water and a methane gas reservoir. Hydrate dissociation leads to the quick release of methane into the liquid phase which can cause methane supersaturation. If the diffusion of methane molecules out of the liquid phase is not fast enough, the methane molecules agglomerate and form bubbles. Under the conditions of our simulations, the methane-rich quasi-spherical bubbles grow to become cylindrical with a radius of ∼11 Å. The nano-bubbles remain stable for about 35 ns until they are gradually and homogeneously dispersed in the liquid phase and finally enter the gas phase reservoirs initially set up in the simulation box. We determined that the minimum mole fraction for the dissolved methane in water to form nano-bubbles is 0.044, corresponding to about 30% of hydrate phase composition (0.148). The importance of nano-bubble formation to the mechanism of methane hydrate formation, growth, and dissociation is discussed.

Facilitating guest transport in clathrate hydrates by tuning guest-host interactions.

The understanding and eventual control of guest molecule transport in gas hydrates is of central importance for the efficient synthesis and processing of these materials for applications in the storage, separation, and sequestration of gases and natural gas production. Previously, some links have been established between dynamics of the host water molecules and guest-host hydrogen bonding interactions, but direct observation of transport in the form of cage-to-cage guest diffusion is still lacking. Recent calculations have suggested that pairs of different guest molecules in neighboring cages can affect guest-host hydrogen bonding and, therefore, defect injection and water lattice motions. We have chosen two sets of hydrate guest pairs, tetrahydrofuran (THF)-CO2 and isobutane-CO2, that are predicted to enhance or to diminish guest-host hydrogen bonding interactions as compared to those in pure CO2 hydrate and we have studied guest dynamics in each using (13)C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods. In addition, we have obtained the crystal structure of the THF-CO2 sII hydrate using the combined single crystal X-ray diffraction and (13)C NMR powder pattern data and have performed molecular dynamics-simulation of the CO2 dynamics. The NMR powder line shape studies confirm the enhanced and delayed dynamics for the THF and isobutane containing hydrates, respectively, as compared to those in the CO2 hydrate. In addition, from line shape studies and 2D exchange spectroscopy NMR, we observe cage-to-cage exchange of CO2 molecules in the THF-CO2 hydrate, but not in the other hydrates studied. We conclude that the relatively rapid intercage guest dynamics are the result of synergistic guest A-host water-guest B interactions, thus allowing tuning of the guest transport properties in the hydrates by choice of the appropriate guest molecules. Our experimental value for inter-cage hopping is slower by a factor of 10(6) than a published calculated value.

Ammonia clathrate hydrates as new solid phases for Titan, Enceladus, and other planetary systems.

There is interest in the role of ammonia on Saturn's moons Titan and Enceladus as the presence of water, methane, and ammonia under temperature and pressure conditions of the surface and interior make these moons rich environments for the study of phases formed by these materials. Ammonia is known to form solid hemi-, mono-, and dihydrate crystal phases under conditions consistent with the surface of Titan and Enceladus, but has also been assigned a role as water-ice antifreeze and methane hydrate inhibitor which is thought to contribute to the outgassing of methane clathrate hydrates into these moons' atmospheres. Here we show, through direct synthesis from solution and vapor deposition experiments under conditions consistent with extraterrestrial planetary atmospheres, that ammonia forms clathrate hydrates and participates synergistically in clathrate hydrate formation in the presence of methane gas at low temperatures. The binary structure II tetrahydrofuran + ammonia, structure I ammonia, and binary structure I ammonia + methane clathrate hydrate phases synthesized have been characterized by X-ray diffraction, molecular dynamics simulation, and Raman spectroscopy methods.

Inter-cage dynamics in structure I, II, and H fluoromethane hydrates as studied by NMR and molecular dynamics simulations.

Prospective industrial applications of clathrate hydrates as materials for gas separation require further knowledge of cavity distortion, cavity selectivity, and defects induction by guest-host interactions. The results presented in this contribution show that under certain temperature conditions the guest combination of CH3F and a large polar molecule induces defects on the clathrate hydrate framework that allow intercage guest dynamics. (13)C NMR chemical shifts of a CH3F/CH4/TBME sH hydrate and a temperature analysis of the (2)H NMR powder lineshapes of a CD3F/THF sII and CD3F/TBME sH hydrate, displayed evidence that the populations of CH4 and CH3F in the D and D' cages were in a state of rapid exchange. A hydrogen bonding analysis using molecular dynamics simulations on the TBME/CH3F and TBME/CH4 sH hydrates showed that the presence of CH3F enhances the hydrogen bonding probability of the TBME molecule with the water molecules of the cavity. Similar results were obtained for THF/CH3F and THF/CH4 sII hydrates. The enhanced hydrogen bond formation leads to the formation of defects in the water hydrogen bonding lattice and this can enhance the migration of CH3F molecules between adjacent small cages.

Antifreezes act as catalysts for methane hydrate formation from ice.

Contrary to the thermodynamic inhibiting effect of methanol on methane hydrate formation from aqueous phases, hydrate forms quickly at high yield by exposing frozen water-methanol mixtures with methanol concentrations ranging from 0.6-10 wt% to methane gas at pressures from 125 bars at 253 K. Formation rates are some two orders of magnitude greater than those obtained for samples without methanol and conversion of ice is essentially complete. Ammonia has a similar catalytic effect when used in concentrations of 0.3-2.7 wt%. The structure I methane hydrate formed in this manner was characterized by powder X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. Steps in the possible mechanism of action of methanol were studied with molecular dynamics simulations of the Ih (0001) basal plane exposed to methanol and methane gas. Simulations show that methanol from a surface aqueous layer slowly migrates into the ice lattice. Methane gas is preferentially adsorbed into the aqueous methanol surface layer. Possible consequences of the catalytic methane hydrate formation on hydrate plug formation in gas pipelines, on large scale energy-efficient gas hydrate formation, and in planetary science are discussed.

Water proton configurations in structures I, II, and H clathrate hydrate unit cells.

Position and orientation of water protons need to be specified when the molecular simulation studies are performed for clathrate hydrates. Positions of oxygen atoms in water are experimentally determined by X-ray diffraction analysis of clathrate hydrate structures, but positions of water hydrogen atoms in the lattice are disordered. This study reports a determination of the water proton coordinates in unit cell of structure I (sI), II (sII), and H (sH) clathrate hydrates that satisfy the ice rules, have the lowest potential energy configuration for the protons, and give a net zero dipole moment. Possible proton coordinates in the unit cell were chosen by analyzing the symmetry of protons on the hexagonal or pentagonal faces in the hydrate cages and generating all possible proton distributions which satisfy the ice rules. We found that in the sI and sII unit cells, proton distributions with small net dipole moments have fairly narrow potential energy spreads of about 1 kJ∕mol. The total Coulomb potential on a test unit charge placed in the cage center for the minimum energy∕minimum dipole unit cell configurations was calculated. In the sI small cages, the Coulomb potential energy spread in each class of cage is less than 0.1 kJ∕mol, while the potential energy spread increases to values up to 6 kJ∕mol in sH and 15 kJ∕mol in the sII cages. The guest environments inside the cages can therefore be substantially different in the sII case. Cartesian coordinates for oxygen and hydrogen atoms in the sI, sII, and sH unit cells are reported for reference.

Thermally Induced Phase Transition of Cubic Structure II Hydrate: Crystal Structures of Tetrahydropyran-CO2 Binary Hydrate.

We report a thermally induced phase transition of cubic structure II hydrates of tetrahydropyran (THP) and CO2 below about 140 K. The phase transition was characterized by powder X-ray diffraction measurements at variable temperatures. A dynamical ordering of the CO2 guests in small pentagonal dodecahedral 512 host water cages, not previously observed in the simple CO2 hydrate, occurs simultaneously with the symmetry lowering transition from a cubic structure II (space group Fd-3m with cell dimensions a = 17.3202(7) Å at 153 K) to a tetragonal (space group I41/amd with cell dimensions a = 17.484(4) Å and c = 12.145(1) Å at 138 K) unit cell. The effect of guest molecules on the phase transition at low temperatures is discussed, which demonstrates that the clathrate hydrate structures and thermodynamic properties can be modified by adjusting the size and chemical structure of larger and smaller guest molecules.