Molecular Modeling Investigations of Sorption and Diffusion of Small Molecules in Glassy Polymers

• Published in: Membranes (Basel) Vol. 9; no. 8; p. 98
• Main Authors: Vergadou, Niki, Theodorou, Doros N
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 08.08.2019; MDPI
• Subjects: Biomedical engineering; Biomedical materials; coarse-graining; diffusion; Environmental engineering; Equilibrium; kinetic Monte Carlo; Membrane separation; Molecular modelling; multiscale modeling; penetrant; Permeability; Polymers; Review; separations; Simulation; Sorption; transition state theory; Water purification; diffusion; separations; coarse-graining; kinetic Monte Carlo; permeability; multiscale modeling; penetrant; polymers; sorption; transition state theory
• ISSN: 2077-0375; 2077-0375
• DOI: 10.3390/membranes9080098

With a wide range of applications, from energy and environmental engineering, such as in gas separations and water purification, to biomedical engineering and packaging, glassy polymeric materials remain in the core of novel membrane and state-of the art barrier technologies. This review focuses on molecular simulation methodologies implemented for the study of sorption and diffusion of small molecules in dense glassy polymeric systems. Basic concepts are introduced and systematic methods for the generation of realistic polymer configurations are briefly presented. Challenges related to the long length and time scale phenomena that govern the permeation process in the glassy polymer matrix are described and molecular simulation approaches developed to address the multiscale problem at hand are discussed.