Modeling Heat Capacity of Supercritical Fluids: A Phonon Theory Approach

Abstract

Recent research shows that liquids and dense supercritical fluids support high frequency shear waves. Here, we proposed a general heat capacity model of supercritical fluids using the latest theoretical findings (the liquid phonon theory). In this theory, heat capacity cv of supercritical fluids is only related to the infinite-frequency shear modulus, Debye relaxation time and minimal length of the longitudinal mode in supercritical fluids rather than the system-specific structure and interactions. The present model quantitatively explains the heat capacities in the liquid-like region and the gas-like region above the critical point. At the same time, the heat capacities of 6 supercritical fluids (including monatomic fluids Ar, Ne and molecular fluids N2, CO, CO2, CH4) over a wide range of temperatures and pressures were calculated using the present model, yielding a high accuracy with no free-fitting parameters. This model has two advantages: (1) The contribution of intramolecular vibrations was considered, which makes the model applicable to molecular fluids and high temperature region; (2) This method starts from the quasi-harmonic Debye model. Thus, it does not require any adjustable parameters and thermal expansion coefficients. Furthermore, the present cv model of the rigid liquid-like supercritical region in this paper can be extended to liquid phase of molecular fluids.