Reverse nonequilibrium molecular-dynamics calculation of the Soret coefficient in liquid benzene/cyclohexane mixtures.

Reverse nonequilibrium molecular dynamics is the method applied here for the investigation of thermal diffusion in realistic molecular fluids. The Soret coefficients of benzene/cyclohexane mixtures are calculated using an all-atom model. The autocorrelation functions indicate that the mole fraction gradient converges much slower than the temperature gradient. Compared to experimental data, the results show the same tendency of the Soret coefficient variation versus the mole fraction. Although a systematic error exists for the magnitude of the Soret coefficient, a meanwhile systematic error for both the mutual diffusion and thermal diffusion coefficients provides some explanation of it; and the calculation with different force field parameters indicates a possibility to annihilate the systematic error. The influences of algorithm variables such as cutoff lengths and perturbation intensities are tested. Furthermore the temperature dependence of the Soret effect is observed, yielding the same trend as previous studies.