Entropic Description of Gas Hydrate Ice-Liquid Equilibrium via Enhanced Sampling of Coexisting Phases

E Malolepsza and J Kim and T Keyes, PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, 114, 170601 (2015).

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.170601

Metastable beta ice holds small guest molecules in stable gas hydrates, so its solid-liquid equilibrium is of interest. However, aqueous crystal-liquid transitions are very difficult to simulate. A new molecular dynamics algorithm generates trajectories in a generalized NPT ensemble and equilibrates states of coexisting phases with a selectable enthalpy. With replicas spanning the range between beta ice and liquid water, we find the statistical temperature from the enthalpy histograms and characterize the transition by the entropy, introducing a general computational procedure for first-order transitions.

Return to Publications page