First-Principles-Derived Force Fields for CH4 Adsorption and Diffusion in Siliceous Zeolites

HJ Fang and R Awati and SE Boulfelfel and PI Ravikovitch and DS Sholl, JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C, 122, 12880-12891 (2018).

DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b03267

Most previous studies on development of force fields for molecules in porous materials focus on prediction of adsorption properties. However, accurately reproducing adsorption data is not sufficient to guarantee the accuracy of other properties, such as diffusivities. We demonstrate an approach to develop force fields based on periodic first principles calculations that can accurately predict both adsorption and diffusion properties in crystalline nanoporous materials using CH4 in siliceous zeolites as an example. First, multiple dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT) methods were tested for describing CH4 in siliceous chabazite, and the two configurations (CH4 interacting with a framework all and an eight-ring window) that are relevant to CH4 adsorption and diffusion were investigated. By comparing with the results from high-level random phase approximation calculations, DFT/CC (coupled cluster) was found to be the optimum method for force field development. DFT/CC-derived force fields that accurately predict both adsorption and diffusion of CH4 in several commonly studied siliceous zeolites are then developed.

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