Molecular Dynamics Study of the Green Solvent Polyethylene Glycol with Water Impurities.

Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is one of the environmentally benign solvent options for green chemistry. It readily absorbs water when exposed to the atmosphere. The Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations of PEG200, a commercial mixture of low molecular weight polyethyelene glycol oligomers, as well as di-, tetra-, and hexaethylene glycol are presented to study the effect of added water impurities up to a weight fraction of 0.020, which covers the typical range of water impurities due to water absorption from the atmosphere. Each system was simulated a total of four times using different combinations of two force fields for the water (SPC/E and TIP4P/2005) and two force fields for the PEG and oligomer (OPLS-AA and modified OPLS-AA). The observed trends in the effects of water addition were qualitatively quite robust with respect to these force field combinations and showed that the water does not aggregate but forms hydrogen bonds at most between two water molecules. In general, the added water causes overall either no or very small and nuanced effects in the simulation results. Specifically, the obtained water RDFs are mostly identical regardless of the water content. The added water reduces oligomer hydrogen bonding interactions overall as it competes and forms hydrogen bonds with the oligomers. The loss of intramolecular oligomer hydrogen bonding is in part compensated by oligomers switching from inter- to intramolecular hydrogen bonding. The interplay of the competing hydrogen bonding interactions leads to the presence of shallow extrema with respect to the water weight fraction dependencies for densities, viscosities, and self-diffusion coefficients, in contrast to experimental measurements, which show monotonous dependencies. However, these trends are very small in magnitude and thus confirm the experimentally observed insensitivity of these physical properties to the presence of water impurities.

On the Behavior of the Ethylene Glycol Components of Polydisperse Polyethylene Glycol PEG200.

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are reported for [polyethylene glycol (PEG)200], a polydisperse mixture of ethylene glycol oligomers with an average molar weight of 200 g·mol-1. As a first step, available force fields for describing ethylene glycol oligomers were tested on how accurately they reproduced experimental properties. They were found to all fall short on either reproducing density, a static property, or the self-diffusion coefficient, a dynamic property. Discrepancies with the experimental data increased with the increasing size of the tested ethylene glycol oligomer. From the available force fields, the optimized potential for liquid simulation (OPLS) force field was used to further investigate which adjustments to the force field would improve the agreement of simulated physical properties with experimental ones. Two parameters were identified and adjusted, the (HO)-C-C-O proper dihedral potential and the polarity of the hydroxy group. The parameter adjustments depended on the size of the ethylene glycol oligomer. Next, PEG200 was simulated with the OPLS force field with and without modifications to inspect their effects on the simulation results. The modifications to the OPLS force field significantly decreased hydrogen bonding overall and increased the propensity of intramolecular hydrogen bond formation at the cost of intermolecular hydrogen bond formation. Moreover, some of the tri- and more so tetraethylene glycol formed intramolecular hydrogen bonds between the hydroxy end groups while still maintaining strong intramolecular interactions with the ether oxygen atoms. These observations allowed the interpretation of the obtained RDFs as well as structural properties such as the average end-to-end distances and the average radii of gyration. The MD simulations with and without the modifications showed no evidence of preferential association of like-oligomers to form clusters nor any evidence of long-range ordering such as a side-by-side stacking of ethylene glycol oligomers. Instead, the simulation results support the picture of PEG200 being a random mixture of its ethylene glycol oligomer components. Finally, additional MD simulations of a binary mixture of tri-and hexaethylene glycol with the same average molar weight as PEG200 revealed very similar structural and physical properties as for PEG200.

Breakdown of the Stokes-Einstein Equation for Solutions of Water in Oil Reverse Micelles.

An experimental study is presented for the reverse micellar system of 15% by mass polydisperse hexaethylene glycol monodecylether (C10E6) in cyclohexane with varying amounts of added water up to 4% by mass. Measurements of viscosity and self-diffusion coefficients were taken as a function of temperature between 10 and 45 °C at varying sample water loads but fixed C10E6/cyclohexane composition. The results were used to inspect the validity of the Stokes-Einstein equation for this system. Unreasonably small reverse average micelle radii and aggregation numbers were obtained with the Stokes-Einstein equation, but reasonable values for these quantities were obtained using the ratio of surfactant-to-cyclohexane self-diffusion coefficients. While bulk viscosity increased with increasing water load, a concurrent expected decrease of self-diffusion coefficient was only observed for the surfactant and water but not for cyclohexane, which showed independence of water load. Moreover, a spread of self-diffusion coefficients was observed for the protons associated with the ethylene oxide repeat unit in samples with polydisperse C10E6 but not in a sample with monodisperse C10E6. These findings were interpreted by the presence of reverse micelle to reverse micelle hopping motions that with higher water load become increasingly selective toward C10E6 molecules with short ethylene oxide repeat units, while those with long ethylene oxide repeat units remain trapped within the reverse micelle because of the increased hydrogen bonding interactions with the water inside the growing core of the reverse micelle. Despite the observed breakdown of the Stokes-Einstein equation, the temperature dependence of the viscosities and self-diffusion coefficients was found to follow Arrhenius behavior over the investigated range of temperatures.

Combining Freezing Point Depression and Self-Diffusion Data for Characterizing Aggregation.

The colligative property freezing point depression is evaluated as a means for estimating the extent of aggregation for solutions of poly(ethylene oxide) alcohol (C10E6) nonionic surfactant in cyclohexane. Combined with additional measurements of self-diffusion coefficients, it is shown that both unaggregated C10E6 as well as reverse micelles are significantly present for the entire range of measured C10E6 concentration (0.048-2.35 mol kg-1). A change in speciation near 0.2 mol kg-1 is indicated by the results from both freezing point depression and self-diffusion coefficient measurements. It is shown that average reverse micelle radii and aggregation numbers obtained from the ratio of solvent and C10E6 self-diffusion coefficients are consistent with prior reported results. However, unreasonably small radii for the reverse micelles as well as for the cyclohexane were obtained from analysis of the results by the Stokes-Einstein equation using additional measured solution viscosities. The concentration of reverse micelles and unaggregated C10E6 was calculated from the freezing point depression results using the aggregation numbers obtained from ratio of self-diffusion coefficients. These concentrations indicate that the reverse micelles become smaller in average size and increase in number with increasing temperature without an increase in unaggregated C10E6.

Transport Properties of the 1-Hexyl-3-methylimidazolium Bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide-Trichloromethane Binary System: Indication of Trichloromethane Segregation.

Self-diffusion coefficients and electrical conductivity were studied for the binary system 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide-trichloromethane ([C6mim][NTf2]-CHCl3) as a function of composition and temperature. Self-diffusion coefficients of cation and anion are identical for ionic liquid mole fractions xIL < 0.95. The self-diffusion coefficient of CHCl3 is consistently larger than that of the ions by a factor of 4. A double logarithmic plot for the ratio of self-diffusion coefficient and temperature versus viscosity is linear for ionic liquid mole fractions 0.1 < xIL < 0.9 indicating (a) a fractional Stokes-Einstein applies where self-diffusion is inverse proportional to some power b of viscosity (D ∼ η(-b)) and (b) single average length scales are associated with the mass transport of [C6mim][NTf2] and CHCl3. However, the obtained length scale for CHCl3 is unreasonably small, which is indicative of CHCl3 segregation. The molar conductivity displays a maximum near xIL = 0.2. Evaluation of the ionicity from molar conductivity and self-diffusion coefficients indicates a gradual speciation change from charged species to neutral species for xIL < 0.5. The temperature dependencies of self-diffusion and molar conductivity follow Arrhenius behavior. The obtained xIL-dependent activation energies are found to be linear for molar conductivity and largest for the cation and anion self-diffusion coefficients. The activation energies for the self-diffusion of CHCl3 appear to be identical with those obtained from fluidity data.

Aggregation Behavior of Several Ionic Liquids in Molecular Solvents of Low Polarity--Indication of a Bimodal Distribution.

The structure and dynamics of ion pairing and aggregation is studied by concentration- and temperature-dependent measurements of (1) H and (19) F self-diffusion coefficients, viscosity, and conductivity for the following five solutions: 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide ([Cn mim][NTf2], n=2, 4, 6) in dichloromethane (CH2Cl2), and [C6 mim][NTf2] in tetrahydrofuran (THF) and chlorobenzene (C6 H5 Cl). The temperature dependence of these properties at constant IL concentrations follows the Arrhenius law for all five solutions. The IL-concentration dependence of the respective activation energies obtained from the Arrhenius analysis is nonlinear in the case of conductivity, but indicates linear relationships for viscosity and self-diffusion. All five solutions studied display average solute radius maxima as plotted against IL concentration. The maximum average solute radii follow an order of solvents of CHCl3 >C6 H5 Cl>CH2 Cl2 ≈THF, which corresponds to the order of increasing solvent dielectric constant. The observed trends in the physical properties of these solutions indicate the development of a bimodal distribution of solute size with increasing IL concentration. Specifically, the presence of aggregates is supported by the analysis of the conductivity data and the observation of the same self-diffusion coefficients for the cation and anion. The concurrent presence of freely dissolved ions is supported by the obtained average solute radii that do not exceed the radii of the corresponding ion pairs.

Ion pairing and dynamics of the ionic liquid 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(irifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide ([C6mim][NTf2]) in the low dielectric solvent chloroform.

The structural and dynamic behavior of the ionic liquid 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amide ([C(6)mim][NTf(2)]) in chloroform has been studied by experimental measurements of (1)H and (19)F self-diffusion coefficients, viscosity, and excess molar volume in the concentration range of 0.001-1.0 mol·kg(-1) and temperatures ranging from 15 to 45 °C. Within measurement uncertainty, the (1)H and (19)F self-diffusion coefficients are identical at the same experimental conditions of concentration and temperature, indicating that even to the lowest measured concentrations the cation and anion are not completely dissociated. The combined experimental data indicates a progression from ion pairing to aggregate formation as concentration increases where at concentrations near 0.1 mol·kg(-1) aggregate formation becomes dominant. Concurrently with the formation of the IL aggregates at higher concentrations, we also observe an apparent breakdown of the validity of the Stokes-Einstein equation, which we explain by translational motion to become dominated by individual ion pairs moving rapidly between IL aggregates.

T2 relaxation measurement with solvent suppression and implications to solvent suppression in general.

A number of suppression pulse sequences including Excitation Sculpting and WATERGATE were incorporated into the standard Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) program for T(2) measurement and experimentally evaluated. The chosen suppression schemes were of varying complexity encompassing pulse program elements, such as presaturation, gradients, and selective pulses, which are typically utilized for solvent suppression. The quality of the spectral data and the accuracy of T(2) measurements of the investigated suppression schemes were evaluated using three aqueous samples with increasing proton content in the water solvent, i.e. by volume 100% D(2)O, 80/20% D(2)O/H(2)O, and 20/80% D(2)O/H(2)O. For signals removed from the water signal, the T(2) values were generally very consistent between all pulse sequences tested. T(2) measurements can be unreliable for signals too close to the water signal such that they are significantly suppressed as well. Their intensity may actually grow initially through cross relaxation that transfers magnetization back to the solute signal. In turn, this relaxation phenomenon can be exploited to improve the spectral quality of conventional solvent suppression schemes. In favorable cases, even signals that are completely masked by the water signal can be recovered by adding a carefully chosen number of spin echoes with optimized evolution time to conventional water suppression pulse programs, such as Excitation Sculpting or WATERGATE.

Thermal isomerization of (+)-cis- and (-)-trans-pinane leading to (-)-beta-citronellene and (+)-isocitronellene.

Catalyzed and uncatalyzed rearrangement reactions of terpenoids play a major role in laboratory and industrial-scale synthesis of fine chemicals. Herein, we present our results on the thermally induced isomerization of pinane (1). Investigation of the thermal behavior of (+)-cis- (1 a) and (-)-trans-pinane (1 b) in a flow-type reactor reveals significant differences in both reactivity and selectivity concerning the formation of (-)-beta-citronellene (2) and (+)-isocitronellene (3) as main products. Possible explanations for these results are discussed on the basis of reaction mechanism and ground-state geometries for 1 a and 1 b. To identify side reactions caused from ene cyclizations of 2 and 3, additional pyrolysis experiments were conducted that enabled the identification of almost all compounds in the network of C(10)H(18)-hydrocarbon products formed from 1.

T1 relaxation measurement with solvent suppression.

Three solvent-suppression pulse sequences of varying complexity were incorporated into the standard inversion recovery pulse program and experimentally evaluated. The least complex suppression sequence involves a composite 90 degrees pulse. A more complex sequence utilizes an excitation sculpting sequence requiring pulsed field gradients, and the most complex sequence incorporates an excitation sculpting sequence with selective rf pulses and gradient pulses. The quality of the spectral data and the accuracy of T(1) measurements of the investigated suppression schemes were evaluated using three aqueous samples with increasing proton content in the water solvent, i.e. by volume 100% D(2)O, 80/20% D(2)O/H(2)O, and 100% H(2)O. For lines removed from the water resonance the T(1) values were generally very consistent between all pulse sequences tested. For lines less than about 200 Hz from the water signal the T(1) measurements become less reliable but are still possible for most of the tested pulse programs.

Water partitioning in "dry" poly(ethylene oxide) alcohol (CmEn) nonionic surfactant--a proton NMR study.

A proton NMR titration study is presented where in small increments quantities of water were added to "dry" CmEn nonionic surfactant. For a particular range of compositions, two resonances for the water/hydroxyl protons were observed that display large chemical shift increases as water content is increased indicating that water must partition between two chemical environments with a surprisingly slow chemical exchange rate. A detailed mechanism of how the increasing amounts of water are incorporated into the surfactant medium is presented accounting for all observed spectral changes.