Simulating the vapour-liquid equilibria of large cyclic alkanes

Self-adapting fixed endpoint configurational-bias Monte Carlo simulations in the Gibbs ensemble were carried out to determine the vapour-liquid coexistence curves of cyclic alkanes from c-pentane to c-octadecane. In general, the critical temperatures and densities of the cyclic alkanes are substantially higher than those of their linear counterparts. Furthermore, the simulation data point to a maximum in the critical density for cyclic alkanes with about eight carbon atoms as also observed for the linear alkanes.