Study of water clusters in the n = 2–34 size regime, based on the ABEEM/MM model

Various properties of water clusters in the n = 2–34 size regime with the change of cluster size have been systemically explored based on the newly developed flexible-body and charge-fluctuating ABEEM/MM water potential model. The ABEEM/MM water model is to take ABEEM charges of all atoms, bonds, and lone-pairs of water molecules into the intermolecular electrostatic interaction term in molecular mechanics. The computed correlating properties characterizing water clusters (H₂O) _n (n = 2–34) include optimal structures, structural parameters, ABEEM charge distributions, binding energies, hydrogen bonds, dipole moments, and so on. The study of optimal structures shows that the ABEEM/MM model can correctly predict the following important structural features, such as the transition from two-dimensional (from dimer to pentamer) to three-dimensional (for clusters larger than the hexamer) structures at hexamer region, the transition from cubes to cages at dodecamer (H₂O)₁₂, the transition from all-surface (all water molecules on the surface of the cluster) to one water-centered (one water molecule at the center of the cluster, fully solvated) structures at (H₂O)₁₇, the transition from one to two internal molecules in the cage at (H₂O)₃₃, and so on. The first three structural transitions are in good agreement with those obtained from previous work, while the fourth transition is different from that identified by Hartke. Subsequently, a systematic investigation of structural parameters, ABEEM charges, energetic properties, and dipole moments of water clusters with increasing cluster size can provide important reference for describing the objective trait of hydrogen bonds in water cluster system, and also provide a strong impetus toward understanding how the water clusters approach the bulk limit.     

Application of the ABEEM/MM model in studying the properties of the water clusters (H2O) n (n=7−10)

ABEEM/MM model has been applied to compute the various properties characterizing water clusters (H₂O) _n (n = 7?10), such as optimized geometries, the hydrogen bonds number, cluster interaction energies, stabilities, ABEEM charge distributions, dipole moments, structural parameters, and so on, and to describe the transition reflected by the hexamer region from two-dimensional (from dimer to pentamer) to three-dimensional structures (for clusters larger than the hexamer).     

Application of the ABEEM/MM model in studying the properties of the water clusters (H2O) n ( n =7?10)

ABEEM/MM model has been applied to compute the various properties characterizing water clusters (H₂O) _n (n = 7−10), such as optimized geometries, the hydrogen bonds number, cluster interaction energies, stabilities, ABEEM charge distributions, dipole moments, structural parameters, and so on, and to describe the transition reflected by the hexamer region from two-dimensional (from dimer to pentamer) to three-dimensional structures (for clusters larger than the hexamer). Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 20373021)     

应用ABEEM/MM蛋白质力场模型研究半胱氨酸二肽构象的性质

ABEEM/MM蛋白质力场模型是应用于蛋白质体系的原子-键电负性均衡方法(ABEEM)与力场(MM)相结合的浮动电荷模型.该模型能够准确地描述分子在环境变化时的静电极化,并能快速计算气态和溶液多肽的结构和能量.首次应用ABEEM/MM蛋白质力场模型研究半胱氨酸二肽构象的性质,如构象能、氢键等.此外,应用从头计算HF/6-31G**方法对其性质进行计算.ABEEM/MM蛋白质力场模型可以快速准确地得到半胱氨酸二肽分子不同稳定构象的性质,其结果可以和从头计算相媲美.以上研究有助于加深对半胱氨酸二肽构象性质的了解,从而也为进一步验证ABEEM/MM蛋白质力场模型的正确性以及参数的合理性提供可靠的依据.     

A study of N-methylacetamide in water clusters: based on atom-bond electronegativity equalization method fused into molecular mechanics

N-methylacetamide (NMA) is a very interesting compound and often serves as a model of the peptide bond. The interaction between NMA and water provides a convenient prototype for the solvation of the peptides in aqueous solutions. Here we present NMA-water potential model based on atom-bond electronegativity equalization method fused into molecular mechanics (ABEEM/MM) that is to take ABEEM charges of all atoms, bonds, and lone-pair electrons of NMA and water molecules into the electrostatic interaction term in molecular mechanics. The model has the following characters: (1)it allows the charges in system to fluctuate responding to the ambient environment; (2) for two major types of intermolecular hydrogen bonds, which are the hydrogen bond forming between the lone-pair electron on amide oxygen and the water hydrogen, and the one forming between the lone-pair electron on water oxygen and the amide hydrogen, we take special treatments in describing the electrostatic interaction by the use of the parameters k(lpO=, H) and k(lpO(-), HN(-)), respectively. The newly constructed potential model based on ABEEM/MM is first applied to amide-water clusters and reproduces gas-phase state properties of NMA(H(2)O)(n) (n=1-3) including optimal structures, dipole moments, ABEEM charge distributions, energy difference of the isolated trans- and cis-NMA, interaction energies, hydrogen bonding cooperative effects, and so on, whose results show the good agreement with those measured by available experiments and calculated by ab initio methods. In order to further test the reasonableness of this model and the correctness and transferability of the parameters, many static properties of the larger NMA-water complexes NMA(H(2)O)(n) (n=4-6) are also studied including optimal structures and interaction energies. The results also show fair consistency with those of our quantum chemistry calculations.     

Theoretical study on the hydration of hydrogen peroxide in terms of ab initio method and atom-bond electronegativity equalization method fused into molecular mechanics

In this paper, the interaction between hydrogen peroxide (HP) and water were systemically studied by atom-bond electronegativity equalization method fused into molecular mechanics (ABEEM/MM) and ab initio method. The results show that the optimized geometries, interaction energies and dipole moments of hydrated HP clusters HP(H₂O) _n (n = 1–6) calculated by ABEEM/MM model are fairly consistent with the MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ//MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ results. The ABEEM/MM results indicate that n = 4 is the transition state structure from 2D planar structure to 3D network structure. The variations of the average hydrogen bond length with the increasing number of water molecules given by ABEEM/MM model agree well with those of ab initio studies. Moreover, the radial distribution functions (RDFs) of water molecule around HP in HP aqueous solution have been analyzed in detail. It can be confirmed that HP is a good proton donor and poor proton acceptor in aqueous solution by analysis of the RDFs.     

环多肽晶体的浮动电荷极化力场模拟

利用原子键电负性均衡结合分子力场方法(ABEEM/MM)对五种环多肽晶体进行了研究. 与传统力场相比, 该方法中的静电势包含了分子内和分子间的静电极化作用, 以及分子内电荷转移影响, 同时加入了化学键等非原子中心电荷位点, 合理地体现了分子中的电荷分布. 相对其他极化力场模型, 具有计算量较小的特点. 该模型下计算得到的环多肽分子单元相对实验测得的结构的原子位置、氢键长度和二面角的均方根偏差分别为0.009 nm、0.013 nm和5.16°, 能够很好地重复实验结果. 总体上, 其结果优于或相当于其他力场模型, 适用于对实际蛋白质体系的模拟和研究.     

Study of lithium cation in water clusters: based on atom-bond electronegativity equalization method fused into molecular mechanics

We present a potential model for Li(+)-water clusters based on a combination of the atom-bond electronegativity equalization and molecular mechanics (ABEEM/MM) that is to take ABEEM charges of the cation and all atoms, bonds, and lone pairs of water molecules into the intermolecular electrostatic interaction term in molecular mechanics. The model allows point charges on cationic site and seven sites of an ABEEM-7P water molecule to fluctuate responding to the cluster geometry. The water molecules in the first sphere of Li(+) are strongly structured and there is obvious charge transfer between the cation and the water molecules; therefore, the charge constraint on the ionic cluster includes the charged constraint on the Li(+) and the first-shell water molecules and the charge neutrality constraint on each water molecule in the external hydration shells. The newly constructed potential model based on ABEEM/MM is first applied to ionic clusters and reproduces gas-phase state properties of Li(+)(H(2)O)(n) (n = 1-6 and 8) including optimized geometries, ABEEM charges, binding energies, frequencies, and so on, which are in fair agreement with those measured by available experiments and calculated by ab initio methods. Prospects and benefits introduced by this potential model are pointed out.     

Valence state parameters of all transition metal atoms in metalloproteins—development of ABEEMσπ fluctuating charge force field

To promote accuracy of the atom‐bond electronegativity equalization method (ABEEMσπ) fluctuating charge polarizable force fields, and extend it to include all transition metal atoms, a new parameter, the reference charge is set up in the expression of the total energy potential function. We select over 700 model molecules most of which model metalloprotein molecules that come from Protein Data Bank. We set reference charges for different apparent valence states of transition metals and calibrate the parameters of reference charges, valence state electronegativities, and valence state hardnesses for ABEEMσπ through linear regression and least square method. These parameters can be used to calculate charge distributions of metalloproteins containing transition metal atoms (Sc‐Zn, Y‐Cd, and Lu‐Hg). Compared the results of ABEEMσπ charge distributions with those obtained by ab initio method, the quite good linear correlations of the two kinds of charge distributions are shown. The reason why the STO‐3G basis set in Mulliken population analysis for the parameter calibration is specially explained in detail. Furthermore, ABEEMσπ method can also quickly and quite accurately calculate dipole moments of molecules. Molecular dynamics optimizations of five metalloproteins as the examples show that their structures obtained by ABEEMσπ fluctuating charge polarizable force field are very close to the structures optimized by the ab initio MP2/6–311G method. This means that the ABEEMσπ/MM can now be applied to molecular dynamics simulations of systems that contain metalloproteins with good accuracy. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

原子-键电负性均衡方法融合进分子力场(ABEEM/MM)应用于蛋白质分子(Crambin)模拟

建立应用于多肽和蛋白质模拟的ABEEM/MM浮动电荷力场.利用该模型和参数,对实际蛋白质分子Crambin(植物种子中的一种小的蛋白质)进行模拟,得到了满意的结果,为其更广泛的应用开辟了道路.     

Theoretical studies on the hydration of formic acid by ab initio and ABEEMσπ fluctuating charge model

The interaction between formic acid (FA) and water was systemically investigated by atom-bond electronegativity equalization method fused into molecular mechanics (ABEEMσπ/MM) and ab initio methods. The geometries of 20 formic acid–water complexes (FA–water) were obtained using B3LYP/aug-cc-pVTZ level optimizations, and the energies were determined at the MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ level with basis set superposition error (BSSE) and zero-point vibrational energy (ZPVE) corrections. The ABEEMσπ potential model gives reasonable properties of these clusters when compared with the present ab initio data. For interaction energies, the root mean square deviation is 0.74 kcal/mol, and the linear coefficient reaches 0.993. Next, FA in aqueous solution was also studied. The hydrogen-bonding pattern due to the interactions with water has been analyzed in detail. Furthermore, the ABEEMσπ charges changed when H₂O interacted with the FA molecule, especially at the sites where the hydrogen bonds form. These results show that the ABEEMσπ fluctuating charge model is fine giving the overall characteristic hydration properties of FA–water systems in good agreement with the high-level ab initio calculations.     

Development and applications of the ABEEM fluctuating charge molecular force field in the ion-containing systems

The microscopic mechanisms of ion hydration and ion selectivity in biomolecular systems are long-standing research topics,in which the difficulty is how to reasonably and accurately describe the ion-water and ion-biomolecule interactions.This paper summarizes the development and applications of the atom-bond electronegativity equalization fluctuating charge force field model,ABEEM/MM,in the investigations of ion hydration,metalloproteins and ion-DNA bases systems.Based on high-level quantum chemistry calculations,the parameters were optimized and the molecular potential functions were constructed and applied to studies of structures,activities,energetics,and thermodynamic and kinetic properties of these ion-containing systems.The results show that the performance of ABEEM/MM is generally better than that of the common force fields,and its accuracy can reach or approach that of the high-level ab initio MP2 method.These studies provide a solid basis for further investigations of ion selectivity in biomolecular systems,the structures and properties of metalloproteins and other related ion-containing systems.     

Study of peptide conformation in terms of the ABEEM/MM method

The ABEEM/MM model (atom-bond electronegativity equalization method fused into molecular mechanics) is applied to study of the polypeptide conformations. The Lennard-Jones and torsional parameters were optimized to be consistent with the ABEEM/MM fluctuating charge electrostatic potential. The hydrogen bond was specially treated with an electrostatic fitting function. Molecular dipole moments, dimerization energies, and hydrogen bond lengths of complexes are reasonably achieved by our model, compared to ab initio results. The ABEEM/MM fluctuating charge model reproduces both the peptide conformational energies and structures with satisfactory accuracy with low computer cost. The transferability is tested by applying the parameters of our model to the tetrapeptide of alanine and another four dipeptides. The overall RMS deviations in conformational energies and key dihedral angles for four di- or tetrapeptide, is 0.39 kcal/mol and 7.7 degrees . The current results agree well with those by the accurate ab initio method, and are comparable to those from the best existing force fields. The results make us believe that our fluctuating charge model can obtain more promising results in protein and macromolecular modeling with good accuracy but less computer cost.     

Theoretical Study on Co^3＋ in Aqueous Solution in Terms of ABEEM/MM Model

A detailed theoretical investigation on Co^3＋ hydration in aqueous solution has been carded out by means of molecular dynamics （MD） simulations based on the atom-bond electronegativity equalization method fused into molecular mechanics （ABEEM/MM）. The effective Co^3＋ ion-water potential has been constructed by fitting to ab initio structures and binding energies for ionic clusters. And then the ion-water interaction potential was applied in combination with the ABEEM-7P water model to molecular dynamics simulations of single Co^3＋（aq.） solution, managing to reproduce many experimental structural and dynamical properties of the solution. Here, not only the common properties （radial distribution function, angular distribution function and solvation energy） obtained for Co^3＋ in ABEEM-7P water solution were in good agreement with those from the experimental methods and other molecular dynamics simulations but also very interesting properties of charge distributions, geometries of water molecules, hydrogen bond, diffusion coefficients, vibrational spectra are investigated by ABEEM/MM model.     

利用浮动电荷力场对N-甲基乙酰胺水溶液的分子动力学模拟

利用原子键电负性均衡结合分子力场方法(ABEEM/MM)对N-甲基乙酰胺(NMA)分子的水溶液体系进行了分子动力学模拟. 与经典的力场模型相比, 该方法中的静电势包含了分子内和分子间的静电极化作用, 以及分子内电荷转移影响, 同时加入了化学键等非原子中心电荷位点, 合理体现了分子中的电荷分布. 相对其它极化力场模型, 该模型具有计算量较小的特点. 在该模型下对NMA纯溶液和其水溶液体系进行了分子动力学模拟, 得到的径向分布函数、汽化热和偶极矩等物理量与实验值和其它极化力场方法符合很好, 合理描述了溶质与溶剂之间的静电极化和分子内的电荷转移.     

Application of the ABEEM/MM model in studying the properties of the water clusters (H2O)n (n= 7- 1O)

ABEEM/MM model has been applied to compute the various properties characterizing water clusters (H2O)n(n = 7-10), such as optimized geometries, the hydrogen bonds number, cluster interaction energies, stabilities, ABEEM charge distributions, dipole moments, structural parameters, and so on, and to describe the transition reflected by the hexamer region from two-dimensional (from dimer to pentamer) to three-dimensional structures (for clusters larger than the hexamer).     

Cationic and anionic environments in LiTFSI-doped di-ureasils with application in solid-state electrochromic devices

Fourier Transform mid-infrared and Raman spectroscopies were used to investigate the cation/polymer, cation/urea bridge, cation/anion and hydrogen bonding interactions in poly(oxyethylene) (POE)/siloxane di-ureasil networks prepared by the sol–gel route and doped with lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI). Materials with compositions 200 ?n ? 5 (where n expresses the molar ratio OCH₂CH₂/Li⁺) were studied. The Li⁺ ions coordinate to the urea carbonyl oxygen atoms over the whole range of salt concentration considered. Bonding to the ether oxygen atoms of the POE chains occurs at n ? 40, although a significant fraction of the POE chains remain non-coordinated. In these high salt content samples, the cations interact with the anions forming contact ion pairs. “Free” ions are probably the main charge carriers at the room temperature conductivity maximum of these ormolytes.     

鸟嘌呤四链体中Na~+的移动

Na+-G-四链体复合物是一个明显的极化体系,其形成或解离过程中,Na+的移动路线目前还不十分明确.σπ水平的原子-键电负性均衡方法融合进分子力学(ABEEMσπ/MM)模型除原子位点外,还明确地定义了孤对电子、σ键和π键的位置,并且各位点电荷随分子环境改变而浮动,因此能更好地反映该体系的极化现象.本文应用ABEEMσπ/MM方法研究了Na+-G-四平面复合物的性质,包括它的几何构型、电荷分布和结合能等,并在MP2/6-31G(d,p)水平上做了相应的从头算,两种结果十分吻合.Na+的存在改变了G-tetrad的氢键方式.通过比较Na+各条移动路线中体系的结合能,预测G-四链体中三个Na+最有可能沿α方向依次移出.以上研究为进一步应用ABEEMσπ/MM模型进行G-四链体中离子交换通道的动力学模拟打下坚实的基础.     

Sr2+和Ba2+水分子体系结构和结合能的从头算和ABEEM/MM研究

应用从头算方法和ABEEM/MM浮动电荷分子力场, 研究了水合碱土离子团簇Sr²⁺/Ba²⁺(H₂O)_n (n=1-6), 构建了离子-水相互作用的ABEEM/MM势能函数, 获得了水合离子团簇的稳定结构, 计算了结合能. 计算结果表明, ABEEM/MM方法的结果和从头算方法的结果有很好的一致性. 进一步应用ABEEM/MM对Sr²⁺和Ba²⁺水溶液进行了分子动力学模拟. 对Sr²⁺水溶液, 得到的Sr²⁺-水中氧原子的径向分布函数的第一和第二最高峰分别位于0.257和0.464 nm处, 第一和第二水合层的配位水分子数分别为9.2和11.4; 对Ba²⁺水溶液, 得到的Ba²⁺与水中氧原子的径向分布函数的第一和第二最高峰分别位于0.269和0.467 nm处, 第一和第二水合层的配位水分子数分别为9.9和12.4. 这与实验值或其它理论模拟结果有较好的一致性. 对比外层的水分子, 金属离子的极化作用使得溶液中第一水合层中水分子的O―H键长增长, HOH键角减小.