In Silico Prediction of the Thermodynamic Equilibrium of Solute Partition in Multiphase Complex Fluids: A Case Study of Oil-Water Microemulsion.

Multiphase complex fluids such as micelles, microemulsions, and dispersions are ubiquitous in product formulations of foods, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and fine chemicals. Quantifying how active solutes partition in the microstructure of such multiphase fluids is necessary for designing formulations that can optimally deliver the benefits of functional actives. In this paper, we at first predict the structure of a heptane/butanol/sodium dodecyl sulfate droplet in water that self-assembled to form a microemulsion through the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and subsequently investigate the thermodynamic equilibrium of solute partitioning using COSMOmic. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the MD/COSMOmic approach is used for predicting solute partitioning in a microemulsion. The predicted partition coefficients are compared to experimental values derived from retention measurements of the same microemulsion. We show that the experimental data of droplet-water partition coefficients () can be reliably predicted by the method that combines MD simulations with COSMOmic.