The Analysis of the Equilibrium Cluster Structure in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

Abstract

The monomer fraction density based analysis of precise thermophysical data for pure fluids is developed to study the molecular structures in supercritical fluids in general and in CO2 in particular. The series expansion by powers of the monomer fraction density of the potential energy density is used to discover the cluster structure in supercritical fluids and the clusters’ bond energies in CO2. The method of clusters separation between classes of loose and dense clusters in the CO2 supercritical fluid is developed. The method of the energetically averaged number of dense clusters is developed to study the mechanism of the soft structural transition between the gas-like and liquid-like fluids in the supercritical CO2.