Grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations of phase equilibria of pure silicon tetrachloride and its binary mixture with carbon dioxide

Grand canonical histogram-reweighting Monte Carlo simulations were used to obtain the phase behaviour of pure silicon tetrachloride and its binary mixture with carbon dioxide. Two new potential models for pure silicon tetrachloride were developed and parametrized to the vapour-liquid coexistence properties. The first model, with one exponential-6 site and fixed electrostatic charges on atoms, does not adequately reproduce the experimental phase behaviour due to its inability to represent orientational anisotropy in the liquid phase. The second potential model, with five exponential-6 sites for the repulsive and dispersive interactions plus partial charges, accurately reproduces experimental saturated liquid and vapour densities as well as vapour pressures and the second virial coefficient for pure silicon tetrachloride. This model was used in simulations of the phase behaviour of the binary mixture carbon dioxide-silicon tetrachloride. Two sets of combining rules (Lorentz-Berthelot and Kong [1973, J. chem. Phys., 59, 2464]) were used to obtain unlike-pair potential parameters. For the binary system, the predicted phase diagram is in good agreement with experiment when the Kong combining rules are used. The Lorentz-Berthelot rules significantly overestimate the solubility of carbon dioxide in silicon tetrachloride.