Effect of Confinement on Chemical Reactions

Molecular simulation studies of chemical equilibrium for several reactions in pores of slit-like and cylindrical geometry have shown a significant effect of the confinement on the equilibrium compositions, with differences of several orders of magnitude with respect to the bulk fluid phase in some cases. As a first step towards the calculation of rate constants in confinement, we have studied the reaction mechanisms for several reactions involving small organic molecules in slit-like pores. We show results for the rotational isomerization of 1,3-butadiene and the unimolecular decomposition of formaldehyde obtained using plane wave pseudopotential density functional theory (DFT). These examples show the influence that confinement can have through both geometrical constraints and fluid-wall interactions.