Liquid to glass transition of tetrahydrofuran and 2-methyltetrahydrofuran

Both tetrahydrofuran (THF) and 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (MTHF) are studied systematically at desired temperatures using molecular dynamics simulations. The results show that the calculated densities are well consistent with experiment. Their glass transition temperatures are obtained: 115 K ～130 K for THF and 131 K ～142 K for MTHF. The calculated results from the dipolar orientational time correlation functions indicate that the “long time” behavior is often associated with a glass transition. From the radial and spatial distributions, we also find that the methyl has a direct impact on the structural symmetry of molecules, which leads to the differences of physical properties between THF and MTHF.