Physical Property Measurements

Warning

This text is now out of date, but will be updated in future to reflect the latest version of the framework.

Physical property measurements are measured properties of a substance that provide some information about the physical parameters that define the interactions within the substance.

A physical property is defined by a combination of:

  • A Mixture specifying the substance that the measurement was performed on

  • A ThermodynamicState specifying the thermodynamic conditions under which the measurement was performed

  • A PhysicalProperty is the physical property that was measured

  • A MeasurementMethod specifying the kind of measurement that was performed

An example of each:

  • Mixture: a 0.8 mole fraction mixture of ethanol and water

  • ThermodynamicState: 298 kelvin, 1 atmosphere

  • PhysicalProperty: mass density

  • MeasurementMethod: vibrating tube method

Physical substances

We generally use the concept of a liquid or gas Mixture, which is a subclass of Substance.

A simple liquid has only one component:

liquid = Mixture()
liquid.add_component('water')

A binary mixture has two components:

binary_mixture = Mixture()
binary_mixture.add_component('water', mole_fraction=0.2)
binary_mixture.add_component('methanol') # assumed to be rest of mixture if no mole_fraction specified

A ternary mixture has three components:

ternary_mixture = Mixture()
ternary_mixture.add_component('ethanol', mole_fraction=0.2)
ternary_mixture.add_component('methanol', mole_fraction=0.2)
ternary_mixture.add_component('water')

The infinite dilution of one solute within a solvent or mixture is also specified as a Mixture, where the solute has zero mole fraction:

infinite_dilution = Mixture()
infinite_dilution.add_component('phenol', impurity=True) # infinite dilution; one copy only of the impurity
infinite_dilution.add_component('water')

You can iterate over the components in a mixture:

for component in mixture.components:
    print (component.iupac_name, component.mole_fraction)

retrieve a component by name:

component = mixture.components['ethanol']

or get the number of components in a mixture:

ncomponents = mixture.ncomponents

or check if a component is an impurity:

if component.impurity == True:
    ...

Thermodynamic states

A ThermodynamicState specifies a combination of thermodynamic parameters (e.g. temperature, pressure) at which a measurement is performed.

from simtk import unit
thermodynamic_state = ThermodynamicState(pressure=500*unit.kilopascals, temperature=298.15*unit.kelvin)

We use the simtk.unit unit system from OpenMM for units (though we may later migrate to pint for portability).

Physical property measurements

A MeasuredPhysicalProperty is a combination of Substance, ThermodynamicState, and a unit-bearing measured property value and uncertainty:

# Define mixture
mixture = Mixture()
mixture.addComponent('water', mole_fraction=0.2)
mixture.addComponent('methanol')

# Define thermodynamic state
thermodynamic_state = ThermodynamicState(pressure=500*unit.kilopascals, temperature=298.15*unit.kelvin)

# Define measurement
measurement = ExcessMolarEnthalpy(substance, thermodynamic_state, value=83.3863244*unit.kilojoules_per_mole,
                                  uncertainty=0.1220794866*unit.kilojoules_per_mole)

The various properties are all subclasses of MeasuredPhysicalProperty and generally follow the <ePropName/> ThermoML tag names.

Some examples of MeasuredPhysicalProperty:

  • MassDensity - mass density

  • ExcessMolarEnthalpy - excess partial apparent molar enthalpy

  • HeatCapacity - molar heat capacity at constant pressure

A roadmap of physical properties to be implemented) is available.

Please raise an issue if your physical property of interest is not listed!

Each MeasuredPhysicalProperty has several properties:

  • .substance - the Mixture for which the measurement was made

  • .thermodynamic_state - the ThermodynamicState at which the measurement was made

  • .measurement_method - the MeasurementMethod used to measure the physical property

  • .value - the unit-bearing measurement value

  • .uncertainty - the standard uncertainty of the measurement

  • .reference - the literature reference (if available) for the measurement

  • .DOI - the literature reference DOI (if available) for the measurement

The value, uncertainty, reference, and DOI do not necessarily need to be defined for a dataset in order for property calculations to be performed.