Computer simulation of molecular sorption in zeolites

The work presented in this thesis encompasses the computer simulation of molecular sorption. In Chapter 1 we outline the aims and objectives of this work. Chapter 2 follows in which an introduction to sorption in zeolites is presented, with discussion of structure and properties of the main zeolites studied. Chapter 2 concludes with a description of the principles and theories of adsorption. In Chapter 3 we describe the methodology behind the work carried out in this thesis. In Chapter 4 we present our first computational study, that of the sorption of krypton in silicalite. We describe work carried out to investigate low energy sorption sites of krypton in silicalite where we observe krypton to preferentially sorb into straight and sinusoidal channels over channel intersections. We simulate single step type I adsorption isotherms and use molecular dynamics to study the diffusion of krypton and obtain diffusion coefficients and the activation energy. We compare our results to previous experimental and computational studies where we show our work to be in good agreement. In Chapter 5 we present a systematic study of the sorption of oxygen and nitrogen in five lithium substituted zeolites using a transferable interatomic potential that we have developed from ab initio calculations. We show increased loading of nitrogen compared to oxygen in all five zeolites studied as expected and simulate adsorption isotherms, which we compare to experimental and simulated data in the literature. In Chapter 6 we present work on the sorption of ferrocene in the zeolite NaY. We show that a simulated, low energy sorption site for ferrocene is correctly located by comparing to X - ray powder diffraction results for this same system. The thesis concludes with some overall conclusions and discussion of opportunities for future work