Overall
- Language
- English
- Conflict of Interest
- In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.
- Publication history
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Received July 5, 2025
Revised September 8, 2025
Accepted September 28, 2025
Available online January 26, 2026
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This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits
unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Most Cited
Advancing Vapor–Liquid Equilibrium Predictions with the OPPES United Atom Forcefield for Associating Fluids
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-025-00574-2
Abstract
In this study, we extend the OPPES united atom force field to normal alcohols, glycols, and alkoxyethanols by optimizing new
potential parameters based on the previously developed OPPES n-alkane and ether models. Bonded interaction parameters
were primarily adopted from the TraPPE-UA model, except for equilibrium bond lengths and bending angles, which were
obtained through density functional theory (DFT) geometry optimizations. Partial charges for ether oxygens and neighboring
carbon pseudo-atoms were taken from the OPPES ether model, while those for hydroxyl oxygens and hydrogens were
adopted from the AMBER model. The alpha carbon's charge was determined by enforcing charge neutrality. Lennard–Jones
(LJ) parameters for hydroxyl oxygen and hydrogen were fitted to experimental liquid densities and vapor pressures of
representative n-alcohols. Using the optimized parameters, we performed configurational-bias Monte Carlo simulations in
the NVT ensemble for five n-alcohols (methanol to 1-octanol), two glycols (1, 2-ethanediol and 1,3-propanediol), and three
alkoxyethanols (2-methoxyethanol to 2-propoxyethanol). Additionally, NPT Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo simulations were
conducted for a binary n-heptane + 2-propoxyethanol system to evaluate phase behavior and local composition enhancements.
Hydrogen bonding statistics were analyzed to assess the model’s performance in capturing associative interactions and fluid
structure. Overall, the OPPES model yielded improved predictions of thermophysical properties compared to the TraPPE-UA
model, especially near critical conditions, demonstrating its potential as a reliable and transferable force field for associating
fluids.

