Molecular dynamic simulation and equation of state of Lennard-Jones chain fluids

In order to study the thermodynamic properties of chain and polymeric fluids at the molecular level, we perform constant temperature molecular dynamics simulations of 'repulsive' and 'full' Lennard-Jones (LJ) chain fluids of lengths up to 16. In the simulation, the RATTLE algorithm to determine constraint forces and the Nose-Hoover thermostat to sample the canonical ensemble are used. For repulsive LJ chains, the compressibility factor of the chain fluids is predicted from first-order thermodynamic perturbation theory combined with the Week-Chandler-Andersen (TPT1-WCA) perturbation theory, and is compared to the simulation results. A good agreement between the theory and the simulation results is found particularly at liquid-like densities. For full LJ chains, two different versions of TPT1 are used to calculate the compressibility factor: one is TPT1-WCA, and the other is TPT1 with the Percus-Yevick approximation for the radial distribution function of the LJ spheres (TPT1-PY). At low and intermediate densities, TPT1-PY gives better predictions for the compressibility of the LJ chain fluids, whereas at high densities TPT1-WCA is more reliable.