Abstract
Dynamic and equilibrium properties of n-alkane chains immersed in solvent molecules have been investigated by a molecular dynamics method. The n-alkane chain is assumed to be a chain of elements (CH$_2$) interconnected by bonds having a fixed bond length and bond angle, but each bond of the chain is allowed to execute hindered internal rotation. We studied the effect of the number of the chain elements (N$_c$ = 10, 15 and 20) on the equilibrium properties of the system, e.g., the pair correlation functions between a chain element and solvent molecules, g$_{cs}$(r), and between the chain elements, g$_{cc}$(r), and the configurational properties such as the mean-square end-to-end distance < R$^2$ >, the mean-square radius of gyration < S$^2$ >, and the eigenvalues of the moment-of-inertia tensor < S$_i^2$ > / < S$^2$ > (i = 1, 2 and 3). We also studied the dynamic properties of the system, e.g., the autocorrelation function C(A;t) where A = R$^2$(t), = S$^2$(t), or = ${\vec{V}}(t)({\vec{V}}$ = velocity of the center of mass), and the diffusion coefficient D. The g$_{cs}$(r)'s are almost equal irrespective of the change of Nc while g$_{cc}$(r) becomes larger as N$_c$ increases; The MD computed configurational properties < R$^2$2 > and < S$^2$ > were found to be a little different from the values calculated from the statistical equations of < R$^2$ > and < S$^2$ >, it may be due to the fact that our model for the MD simulations includes a long-range volume effect. From the < S$_i^2$ > / < S$^2$ >, it is found that the chain molecule has a nearly spherical shape irrespective of the variation of N$_c$. For the dynamic properties we found that the C(R$^2$;t) and C(S$^2$;t) of lower N$_c$ decay faster than those of higher N$_c$, while the C($\vec V$;t) of the center of mass in the chain is weakly dependent on the N$_c$. The center of mass diffusion coefficient D$_c$ decreases as N$_c$ increases while the end point diffusion coefficient D$_e$ is nearly equal irrespective of the change of N$_c$.