MONTE-CARLO SIMULATION OF BINARY GAS-ADSORPTION IN ZEOLITE CAVITIES

Grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations have been performed for binary adsorption of Lennard-Jones molecules with point multipole moments in zeolite cavities of type X. Fluid-solid electrostatic interactions were taken into account. Phase diagrams and total coverage were calculated for three binaries and compared with experimental measurements. MC simulations gave good agreement with experiment for two mixtures (C2H4-C02 and C02-CH4) but there were discrepancies between simulation and experiment for the system C4HK10-C\H4. The dependence of excess Gibbs free energy on the composition and pressure was studied. Negative deviations from ideality are due to energetic heterogeneity and size effects. Unlike liquid-vapor equilibrium, deviations from the Lorentz-Berthelot mixing rules for the adsorbates have little effect upon the phase behavior. Density distributions show that the components compete for the high energy sites inside the cavity; depending on its relative strength of adsorption, one component may be excluded from such positions (CH4 in C02-CH4), or the two species may share sites inside the cavity (C,H4-C02). © 1991, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.