Predicting the equilibrium solubility of solid polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and dibenzothiophene using a combination of MOSCED plus molecular simulation or electronic structure calculations

ABSTRACT

Methods to predict the equilibrium solubility of non-electrolyte solids are important for the design of novel separation processes. Here we demonstrate how conventional molecular simulation free energy calculations or electronic structure calculations in a continuum solvent, here SMD or SM8, can be used to predict parameters for the MOdified Separation of Cohesive Energy Density (MOSCED) method. The method is applied to the solutes naphthalene, anthracene, phenanthrene, pyrene and dibenzothiophene, compounds of interested to the petroleum industry and for environmental remediation. Adopting the melting point temperature and enthalpy of fusion of these compounds from experiment, we are able to predict equilibrium solubilities. Comparing to a total of 422 non-aqueous and 193 aqueous experimental solubilities, we find the proposed method is able to well correlate the data. The use of MOSCED is additionally advantageous as it is a solubility parameter-based method useful for intuitive solvent selection and formulation.

KEYWORDS:

• Solubility
• molecular simulation
• continuum solvent
• electronic structure calculation
• solvation free energy

Acknowledgments

Computing support was provided by the Ohio Supercomputer Center and Miami University's Research Computing Support group.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

J. R. Phifer, C. E. Cox, and E. J. O’Loughlin are thankful for the financial support through the Undergraduate Summer Scholars (USS) program through the Office of Research for Undergraduates at Miami University. R. T. Ley gratefully acknowledges the financial support from the Miami University College of Engineering and Computing. G. G. Nogueira, L. F. da Silva and A. K. P. Barbosa gratefully acknowledge the financial support through the Brazil Scientific Mobility Program, sponsored by CAPES and CNPq.