Kinetic Energy and Angular Distributions of He and Ar Atoms Evaporating from Liquid Dodecane

Abstract

We report both kinetic energy and angular distributions for He and Ar atoms evaporating from C₁₂H₂₆. All results were obtained by performing molecular dynamics simulations of liquid C₁₂H₂₆ with around 10-20 noble gas atoms dissolved in the liquid and by subsequently following the trajectories of the noble gas atoms after evaporation from the liquid. Whereas He evaporates with a kinetic energy distribution of (1.05 ± 0.03) × 2RT (corrected for the geometry used in experiments: (1.08 ± 0.03) × 2RT, experimentally obtained value: (1.14 ± 0.01) × 2RT), Ar displays a kinetic energy distribution that better matches a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution at the temperature of the liquid ((0.99 ± 0.04) × 2RT). This behavior is also reflected in the angular distributions, which are close to a cosine distribution for Ar but slightly narrower, especially for faster atoms, in the case of He. This behavior of He is most likely due to the weak interaction potential between He and the liquid hydrocarbon.