Comparisons between integral equation theory and molecular dynamics simulations for realistic models of polyethylene liquids

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed on dense liquids of polyethylene chains of 24 and 66 united atom CH2 units. A series of models was studied ranging in atomistic detail from coarse-grained, freely-jointed, tangent site chains to realistic, overlapping site models subjected to bond angle restrictions and torsional potentials. These same models were also treated with the self-consistent, polymer reference interaction site model (PRISM) theory. The intramolecular and total structure factors, as well as, the intermolecular radial distribution functions g(r) and direct correlation functions C(r) were obtained from theory and simulation. Angular correlation functions were also obtained from the MD simulations. Comparisons between theory and simulation reveal that PRISM theory works well for computing the intermolecular structure of coarse-grained chain models, but systematically underpredicts the extent of intermolecular packing, and overpredicts the compressibility, as more realistic details are introduced into the model. We found that the PRISM theory could be considerably improved by adding a tail function to C(r) beyond the effective hard core diameter. The range of this tail function was determined by requiring the theory to yield the correct compressibility. The intermolecular radial distribution functions from this modified PRISM theory were in excellent agreement with g(r)'s obtained from the simulations. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(99)50843-X].