Abstract
Clathrate hydrates are crystalline compounds enclosing guest substances in cages that are formed by hydrogen bonded water molecules. They are expected as various types of industrial applications. Methane is one of the most important guest substance of clathrate hydrates and the understanding of the mechanisms of nucleation and crystal growth from methane and liquid water is significant for the hydrate applications. Molecular dynamics calculation is a suitable method for the observation of nucleation and crystal growth in molecular level. We focused on crystal growth after nucleation and carried out the molecular dynamics simulation of the crystal growth of methane hydrate on the water/methane surface and analyzed in molecular level. In this work, we achieved the growth rate along the water/methane interface is larger than that in the bulk water.
