Molecular Simulation of the Diffusion of Uranyl Carbonate Species in Aqueous Solution
Molecular dynamics simulations of aqueous uranyl carbonate species were carried out with two different potential models to gain molecular-level insight into the hydration properties of these species and evaluate the ability of the two models to reproduce published ab initio and experimental data. The simulation results were used to estimate the self-diffusion coefficients of uranyl carbonate species that often dominate uranyl speciation in groundwater systems. The first potential model was based on a series of shell models developed by Parker and co-workers (including (DE LEEUW and PARKER, 1998; KERISIT and PARKER, 2004; PAVESE et al., 1996). The second potential model was a rigid-ion model based on the flexible SPC water model (TELEMAN et al., 1987), the uranyl model of Guilbaud and Wipff (GUILBAUD and WIPFF, 1996), and the parameters for the carbonate ion given by Greathouse and co-workers (GREATHOUSE and CYGAN, 2005; GREATHOUSE et al., 2002). Analysis of structural (mean interatomic distances and coordination numbers) and dynamical (water residence times in hydration shell and self-diffusion coefficients) properties showed that, overall, the first potential model performed best when compared to published data, although the only major discrepancy with the second model was a misrepresentation of the configuration adopted by the alkaline-earth uranyl carbonate ions. The diffusion coefficients obtained for the alkaline-earth cations and the uranyl ion were compared with three variants of the Stokes-Einstein (SE) equation and it was found that none of the three SE models were able to reproduce both the absolute values and the overall trend determined from the molecular dynamics simulations. However, as would be expected based on the SE equation, a plot of the diffusion coefficients of the uranyl carbonate complexes as a function of the inverse of the equivalent spherical radius showed a general linear dependence with the two models yielding almost identical gradients. The nature of the alkaline-earth cation in the uranyl carbonate complexes was found to have only a small effect on the ion’s diffusion coefficient.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States). Environmental Molecular Sciences Lab. (EMSL)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 988629
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-70582; GCACAK; 4691a; 32898; 31295; KP1702030; TRN: US1006700
- Journal Information:
- Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 74(17):4937-4952, Vol. 74, Issue 17; ISSN 0016-7037
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS
CARBONATES
CATIONS
CONFIGURATION
COORDINATION NUMBER
DIFFUSION
HYDRATION
INTERATOMIC DISTANCES
SELF-DIFFUSION
SHELL MODELS
SIMULATION
URANYL CARBONATES
WATER
uranyl
carbonate
molecular dynamics
diffusion
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory