Dependence of diffusivity on density and solute diameter in liquid phase: a molecular dynamics study of Lennard-Jones system

Investigations into the variation of self-diffusivity with solute radius, density, and degree of disorder of the host medium is explored. The system consists of a binary mixture of a relatively smaller sized solute, whose size is varied and a larger sized solvent interacting via Lennard-Jones potential. Calculations have been performed at three different reduced densities of 0.7, 0.8, and 0.933. These simulations show that diffusivity exhibits a maximum for some intermediate size of the solute when the solute diameter is varied. The maximum is found at the same size of the solute at all densities which is at variance with the prediction of the levitation effect. In order to understand this anomaly, additional simulations were carried out in which the degree of disorder has been varied while keeping the density constant. The results show that the diffusivity maximum gradually disappears with increase in disorder. Disorder has been characterized by means of the minimal spanning tree. Simulations have also been carried out in which the degree of disorder is constant and only the density is altered. The results from these simulations show that the maximum in diffusivity now shifts to larger distances with decrease in density. This is in agreement with the changes in void and neck distribution with density of the host medium. These results are in excellent agreement with the predictions of the levitation effect. They suggest that the effect of disorder is to shift the maximum in diffusivity towards smaller solute radius while that of the decrease in density is to shift it towards larger solute radius. Thus, in real systems where the degree of disorder is lower at higher density and vice versa, the effect due to density and disorder have opposing influences. These are confirmed by the changes seen in the velocity autocorrelation function, self part of the intermediate scattering function and activation energy. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3701619]