Orientational dynamics of C70 molecules in chlorobenzene

Dynamics of anisotropy relaxation of C₇₀ singlet excited molecules in chlorobenzene was measured at room temperature by the picosecond transient grating technique. The time-ependent diffraction efficiency exhibits a two-stage decay: a fast component (₁ = 12±5 ps), which is comparable with the corresponding signal of C₆₀ in chlorobenzene ( = 8±2 ps), and a slow one (₂ = 30±5 ps). It is supposed that relaxation of anisotropy is related to the orientational mobility of excited C₇₀ molecules relative to two axes of the molecular framework. The results obtained cannot be described by the Einstein-Stokes-Debye theory. The Hynes-Kapral-Weinberg theory, which takes into account microscopic interactions between molecules upon collisions, agrees satisfactorily with the experiment. The influence of dielectric friction on the orientational mobility of C₇₀ in chlorobenzene was estimated.Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 3, pp. 601–604, March, 1996.     

Ultrafast vibrational dynamics of interfacial water

We report investigations of the vibrational dynamics of water molecules at the water–air and at the water–lipid interface. Following vibrational excitation with an intense femtosecond infrared pulse resonant with the O–H stretch vibration of water, we follow the subsequent relaxation processes using the surface-specific spectroscopic technique of sum frequency generation. This allows us to selectively follow the vibrational relaxation of the approximately one monolayer of water molecules at the interface. Although the surface vibrational spectra of water at the interface with air and lipids are very similar, we find dramatic variations in both the rates and mechanisms of vibrational relaxation. For water at the water–air interface, very rapid exchange of vibrational energy occurs with water molecules in the bulk, and this intermolecular energy transfer process dominates the response. For membrane-bound water at the lipid interface, intermolecular energy transfer is suppressed, and intramolecular relaxation dominates. The difference in relaxation mechanism can be understood from differences in the local environments experienced by the interfacial water molecules in the two different systems.     

Stress-relaxation behavior of a physical gel: Evidence of co-occurrence of structural relaxation and water diffusion in ionic alginate gels

Stress relaxation measurements on ionically cross-linked alginate gels in an unconfined uniaxial compression are reported. Data are obtained as a function of ionic (divalent calcium) concentration and for various sample radii. Analysis of the results shows that such gels, at all investigated concentrations, relax the stress by two different concurring mechanisms: (a) an internal relaxation, most probably due to detachment and re-bonding of the cations along the alginate chains, and (b) the diffusion of water out of the gel.     

Quantum dynamics of relaxation of a pair of coupled Morse oscillators: Effects of mass and electrical asymmetries

A multiconfiguration time‐dependent Hartree method based recipe is used to study the role of mass and electrical asymmetry in controlling the quantum dynamics of relaxation of a locally excited O? H bond in a water molecule, modeled by a pair of interacting Morse oscillators. The fast periodic energy transfer between the two equivalent O? H bonds in H? O? H is replaced by a rather slow process when one of the H atom is replaced by a deuterium atom. Application of static electric field along the O? D bond in HOD molecule is seen to either enhance or damp the relaxation rate, depending on the strength of the applied field. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2005     

Structural and atoms-in-molecules analysis of hydrogen-bond network around nitroxides in liquid water

In this study, we investigated the hydrogen-bond network patterns involving the NO moieties of five small nitroxides in liquid water by analyzing nanosecond scale molecular dynamics trajectories. To this end, we implemented two types of hydrogen-bond definitions, based on electronic structure, using Bader's atoms-in-molecules analysis and based on geometric criteria. In each definition framework, the nitroxide/water hydrogen-bond networks appear very variable from a nitroxide to another. Moreover, each definition clearly leads to a different picture of nitroxide hydration. For instance, the electronic structure-based definition predicts a number of hydrogen bonds around the nitroxide NO moiety usually larger than geometric structure-based ones. One particularly interesting result is that the strength of a nitroxide/water hydrogen bond does not depend on its linearity, leading us to question the relevance of geometric definition based on angular cutoffs to study this type of hydrogen bond. Moreover, none of the hydrogen-bond definitions we consider in the present study is able to quantitatively correlate the strength of nitroxide/water hydrogen-bond networks with the aqueous nitroxide spin properties. This clearly exhibits that the hydrogen-bonding concept is not reliable enough to draw quantitative conclusions concerning such properties.     

Effects of the cutoff center on the mean potential and pair distribution functions in liquid water

Molecular dynamics simulations of extended simple point charge (SPC/E) water have been performed to study the effects of the truncation of long-range interactions on some calculated bulk properties of the liquid. The mean potential calculated in liquid water is sensitive to the choice of the cutoff center in the water molecule. The pair distribution function is also dependent on this choice, although not as strongly as the mean potential. An analysis is carried out to understand the origin of these effects. A common cutoff center is at the oxygen atom in the water molecule, but our study shows that this choice does not yield a mean potential value consistent with a more accurate estimate when no cutoff is applied. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

New model pair potential for water. Effect of inclusion of specific O⋯H interactions on the topology and dynamics of the hydrogen-bond network

Classical molecular dynamics was used to calculate the topologic and dynamic characteristics of H-bond networks in water, using various model potentials. The explicit inclusion of intermolecular interactions of oxygen and hydrogen atoms leads to a model involving additional stabilization of tetrahedrally coordinated molecules and, as a consequence, increased number of such molecules in the system. The H-bond lifetimes point to a strongly correlated molecular motion in the immediate environment.     

Structure and dynamics of liquid water

A review of recent studies on the structure and dynamics of water (in liquid and amorphous states) by physical methods and computer experiment is presented together with a brief summary of historical background. Basic concepts offered for describing the structure and dynamics of water are considered. The structure of water is currently viewed as having a uniform three-dimensional network formed by hydrogen-bonded molecules. The arrangement of this network is dissimilar from that found in any crystal structures; it is dynamically and structurally inhomogeneous. The network is rather labile; water molecules continuously change their neighbors, so that the average lifetime of hydrogen bonds is about a few picoseconds.     

Diffusion of water and ethanol in ion-exchange membranes: limits of the geometric approach

Diffusion coefficients of water as a solvent and ethanol as a tracer in sulphonated polyethylene (SPE) were measured by the pulsed-gradient spin-echo NMR method. Comparison with the data available for a number of ionic and non-ionic polymers and solvents shows that, except for Nafion, all the materials exhibit a fairly universal dependence of diffusivity on the volume fraction of the solvent. This result is explained on the basis of the geometric obstruction approach and general conditions are formulated for the observed universal dependence. Explanations are proposed for the peculiar behaviour of Nafion and for the low diffusivity of ethanol within the same framework.     

Sorption of water and organic solutes in polyimide films and its effects on dielectric properties

The effect of structure on the sorption kinetics of water and of various organic solutes into polyimide (PMDA-ODA) thin films was studied. The major techniques employed include measurements of sorption kinetics, density, and dielectric relaxation. More solute uptake, lower densities and higher diffusivities were observed for films cured at lower temperatures. By measuring both changes of mass and of density, the volume expansion of the polymer due to each solute was obtained; this was found to be proportional to the molar volume of the solute. The two dielectric relaxation peaks (denoted by γ₁ and γ₂) due to water (and other solutes) were studied in detail to obtain the relevant activation energies and the separate dipole moments. While water and methylene chloride appear in both γ₁ and γ₂ configurations, methyl and ethyl alcohol appear mainly as γ₂, while acetic acid is primarily γ₁. It was concluded that the γ₁ configurations are relatively homogeneously distributed throughout the polymer, involving loose bonding to the polymer structure, while the γ₂ configurations involve small clusters, probably chains of molecules. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Hydrogen bonding contribution to the water pair interaction potential: Effects on the model liquid structure

Empirical pair potentials of water that take into account the contribution of the OH nonelectrostatic interaction in the hydrogen bond are considered. The effects of this contribution on the radial distribution functions derived by computer simulation are analyzed. Model potentials have been obtained for which the height and position of the first and second peaks of the oxygen-oxygen radial distribution function are comparable with experimental data.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2004 by A. V. Borovkov, M. L. Antipova, V. E. Petrenko, and Yu. M. KesslerTranslated from Zhurnal Strukturnoi Khimii, Vol. 45, No. 4, pp. 678–682, July–August, 2004.Deceased.This revised version was published online in April 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

Ionic and dipolar solvation dynamics in liquid water

The solvation time correlation function for solvation in liquid water was measured recently. The solvation was found to be very fast, with a time constant equal to 55 fs. In this article we present theoretical studies on solvation dynamics of ionic and dipolar solutes in liquid water, based on the molecular hydrodynamic approach developed earlier. The molecular hydrodynamic theory can successfully predict the ultrafast dynamics of solvation in liquid water as observed from recent experiments. The present study also reveals some interesting aspects of dipolar solvation dynamics, which differs significantly from that of ionic solvation. Dedicated to Prof. C N R Rao on his 60th birthday     

Hydrogen bonding definitions and dynamics in liquid water

X-ray and neutron diffractions, vibrational spectroscopy, and x-ray Raman scattering and absorption experiments on water are often interpreted in terms of hydrogen bonding. To this end a number of geometric definitions of hydrogen bonding in water have been developed. While all definitions of hydrogen bonding are to some extent arbitrary, those involving one distance and one angle for a given water dimer are unnecessarily so. In this paper the authors develop a systematic procedure based on two-dimensional potentials of mean force for defining cutoffs for a given pair of distance and angular coordinates. They also develop an electronic structure-based definition of hydrogen bonding in liquid water, related to the electronic occupancy of the antibonding OH orbitals. This definition turns out to be reasonably compatible with one of the distance-angle geometric definitions. These two definitions lead to an estimate of the number of hydrogen bonds per molecule in liquid simple point charge/extended (SPC/E) water of between 3.2 and 3.4. They also used these and other hydrogen-bond definitions to examine the dynamics of local hydrogen-bond number fluctuations, finding an approximate long-time decay constant for SPC/E water of between 0.8 and 0.9 ps, which corresponds to the time scale for local structural relaxation.     

液态水的分子动力学模拟

用分子动力学(MD)模拟方法在150~376K的温度范围内对液态水的微正则系统进行了研究。考察了液态水的结构及其性质。模拟采用了由从头算得出的柔性水-水相互作用势MCYL。对时间和空间的平均得出了液态中水分子几何构型及温度改变所引起的液态水结构变化。对径向分布函数gOH, gOO, gHH及配位数的分析表明, 在所考察的温度范围内, 每个水分子与相邻分子形成的氢键数为2~3, 水分子在参与的2个氢键中同时作为授受体。结合对振动谱的研究表明在低温时液态水形成的网络结构可能随温度的升高而形成小的簇结构。     

Water dimer in liquid water

Summary A Self-Consistent Reaction Field Model is used to study the effect of the molecular environment on the electronic distribution and on the equilibrium geometry of the water dimer in liquid water. Computations are performed at the 6-311G++(2d,2p) MP2 level. Comparison of the results for the monomer and the dimer, in a vacuum and in the liquid, is made in order to gain a deeper insight on the cooperative phenomenon. The discussion emphasizes the trends which should be considered for deriving more sophisticated water-water potentials.     

Many-body dissipative particle dynamics simulation of liquid/vapor and liquid/solid interactions

The combination of short-range repulsive and long-range attractive forces in many-body dissipative particle dynamics (MDPD) is examined at a vapor/liquid and liquid/solid interface. Based on the radial distribution of the virial pressure in a drop at equilibrium, a systematic study is carried out to characterize the sensitivity of the surface tension coefficient with respect to the inter-particle interaction parameters. For the first time, the approximately cubic dependence of the surface tension coefficient on the bulk density of the fluid is evidenced. In capillary flow, MDPD solutions are shown to satisfy the condition on the wavelength of an axial disturbance leading to the pinch-off of a cylindrical liquid thread; correctly, no pinch-off occurs below the cutoff wavelength. Moreover, in an example that illustrates the cascade of fluid dynamics behaviors from potential to inertial-viscous to stochastic flow, the dynamics of the jet radius is consistent with the power law predictions of asymptotic analysis. To model interaction with a solid wall, MDPD is augmented by a set of bell-shaped weight functions; hydrophilic and hydrophobic behaviors, including the occurrence of slip in the latter, are reproduced using a modification in the weight function that avoids particle clustering. The dynamics of droplets entering an inverted Y-shaped fracture junction is shown to be correctly captured in simulations parametrized by the Bond number, confirming the flexibility of MDPD in modeling interface-dominated flows.     

Visualisation-based analysis of structure and dynamics of liquid aluminosilicate under compression

Structure and dynamics of liquid aluminosilicate (Al₂O₃–2SiO₂, abbreviated as AS2) are investigated by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and visualisation. The local structural characteristics are analysed via topology statistics of basic structural units TO_n and OT_m (T = Si, Al; n = 3, 4, 5, 6; m = 2, 3, 4, 5). The amount distribution as well as spatial distribution of the basic structural units under compression is also clarified. Regarding the intermediate range order, the amount and spatial distribution of all types of OT_m linkages as well as the bond statistics (corner-, edge-, and face-sharing) between two adjacent TO_n units are investigated in detail. The self-diffusion of Si, Al, and O is calculated via mean square displacement (MSD). The anomalous diffusion is explained in detail in relationship to structural characteristics. The structural and dynamical heterogeneities, micro-phase separation, and liquid–liquid phase transition are also discussed in this work.     

Lifetimes and the dynamics of hydrogen bonds in liquid water

Based on Raman spectra of light, heavy, and half-heavy water in the region of O-H and O-D stretching vibrations and on the independent-oscillator model, it is shown that a peculiarity of the liquid state of water is the nonequivalence of O-H groups of water molecules in hydrogen bonding. The structure of liquid water and the mechanism of its molecular mobility are considered in this context.