  Microwave heating of methane hydrate is studied with electrostatic molecular
dynamics simulations by the five-body translation and rotation system and the
TIP5P-Ewald water model. The structure I of methane hydrate is constructed.
When the methane hydrate of density 0.91 $\rm{g/cm}^3$ and a temperature 273 K
is exposed to microwave electric fields of 10 GHz, it is dynamically unstable
and collapses to be liquid after a certain period of irradiation. The period of
a collapse time in this model is $1.7 \times 10^{6} \tau $ and the temperature
increase is $\Delta T \cong 61$ degrees, where the external electric field is
$3 \times 10^{7} \rm{V/cm}$ (i.e. 0.3 V/\AA) and $\tau = 1 \times 10^{-14}$ s.
The medium high density of $0.935 \rm{g/cm}^{3}$ becomes stable at the
temperature 273 K. The unstable methane hydrate at the 1 atm pressure
corresponds to $1.3 \times 10^{-2}$ s in the 1,000 V/cm of the microwave
devices.

Chemical Physics