Hydrogen bonded structure and dynamics of liquid-vapor interface of water-ammonia mixture: an ab initio molecular dynamics study

We have carried out ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of a liquid-vapor interfacial system consisting of a mixture of water and ammonia molecules. We have made a detailed analysis of the structural and dynamical properties of the bulk and interfacial regions of the mixture. Among structural properties, we have looked at the inhomogeneous density profiles of water and ammonia molecules, hydrogen bond distributions, orientational profiles, and also vibrational frequency distributions of bulk and interfacial molecules. It is found that the interfacial molecules show preference for specific orientations so as to form water-ammonia hydrogen bonds at the interface with ammonia as the acceptor. The structure of the system is also investigated in terms of inter-atomic voids present in the system. Among the dynamical properties, we have calculated the diffusion, orientational relaxation, hydrogen bond dynamics, and vibrational spectral diffusion in bulk and interfacial regions. It is found that the diffusion and orientation relaxation of the interfacial molecules are faster than those of the bulk. However, the hydrogen bond lifetimes are longer at the interface which can be correlated with the time scales found from the decay of frequency time correlations.     

Charge-on-spring polarizable water models revisited: from water clusters to liquid water to ice

The properties of two improved versions of charge-on-spring (COS) polarizable water models (COS/G2 and COS/G3) that explicitly include nonadditive polarization effects are reported. In COS models, the polarization is represented via a self-consistently induced dipole moment consisting of a pair of separated charges. A previous polarizable water model (COS/B2), upon which the improved versions are based, was developed by Yu, Hansson, and van Gunsteren. To improve the COS/B2 model, which overestimated the dielectric permittivity, one additional virtual atomic site was used to reproduce the water monomer quadrupole moments besides the water monomer dipole moment in the gas phase. The molecular polarizability, residing on the virtual atomic site, and Lennard-Jones parameters for oxygen-oxygen interactions were varied to reproduce the experimental values for the heat of vaporization and the density of liquid water at room temperature and pressure. The improved models were used to study the properties of liquid water at various thermodynamic states as well as gaseous water clusters and ice. Overall, good agreement is obtained between simulated properties and those derived from experiments and ab initio calculations. The COS/G2 and COS/G3 models may serve as simple, classical, rigid, polarizable water models for the study of organic solutes and biopolymers. Due to its simplicity, COS type of polarization can straightforwardly be used to introduce explicit polarization into (bio)molecular force fields.     

Revisiting the hexane-water interface via molecular dynamics simulations using nonadditive alkane-water potentials

We present results addressing properties of a polarizable force field for hexane based on the fluctuating charge (FQ) formalism and developed in conjunction with the Chemistry at Harvard Molecular Mechanics (CHARMM) potential function. Properties of bulk neat hexane, its liquid-vapor interface, and its interface with a polarizable water model (TIP4P-FQ) are discussed. The FQ model is compared to a recently modified alkane model, C27r, also based on the CHARMM potential energy function. With respect to bulk properties, both models predict bulk density within 1%; the FQ model predicts the liquid vaporization enthalpy within 2%, while the C27r force field underestimates the property by roughly 20% (and in this sense reflects the quality of the C27r force field across the spectrum of linear and branched alkanes). The FQ hexane model realistically captures the dielectric properties of the bulk in terms of a dielectric constant of 1.94, in excellent agreement with experimental values in the range of 1.9-2.02. This behavior is also in conformity with a recent polarizable alkane model based on Drude oscillators. Furthermore, the bulk dielectric is essentially captured in the infinite frequency, or optical, dielectric contribution. The FQ model is in this respect a more realistic force field for modeling lipid bilayer interiors for which most current state-of-the-art force fields do not accurately capture the dielectric environment. The molecular polarizability of the FQ model is 11.79 A3, in good agreement with the range of experimental and ab initio values. In contrast to FQ models of polar solvents such as alcohols and water, there was no need to scale gas-phase polarizabilities in order to avoid polarization catastrophes in the pure bulk. In terms of the liquid-vapor and liquid-liquid interfaces, the FQ model displays a rich orientational structure of alkane and water in the respective interfacial systems, in general conforming with earlier simulation studies of such interfaces. The FQ force field shows a marked deviation in the interfacial dipole potentials computed from the charge densities averaged over simulation trajectories. At the liquid-vapor interface, the FQ model predicts a potential drop of -178.71 mV in contrast to the C27r estimate of -433.80 mV. For the hexane-water interface, the FQ force field predicts a dipole potential drop of -379.40 mV in contrast to the C27r value of -105.42 mV. Although the surface dipole potential predicted by the FQ model is roughly 3.5 times that predicted by the C27r potential, it is consistent with reported experimental potentials across solvated lipid bilayers in the range of 400-600 mV.     

Molecular dynamics study of the liquid-vapor interface of acetonitrile: equilibrium and dynamical properties

The equilibrium and dynamical properties of the liquid-vapor interface of pure acetonitrile are studied by means of molecular dynamics simulations. Both nonpolarizable and polarizable models are employed in the present study. For the nonpolarizable model, the simulations are carried out for two different system sizes and at two different temperatures whereas the simulation with the polarizable model is done for a single system. The inhomogeneous density, anisotropic orientational profile, the width of the interface, and also the surface tension are calculated at room temperature and also at a lower temperature of 273 K. The dynamical aspects of the interface are investigated in terms of the single-particle dynamical properties such as the relaxation of velocity autocorrelation and the translational diffusion coefficients along the perpendicular and parallel directions and the dipole orientational relaxation of the interfacial acetonitrile molecules. The results of the interfacial dynamics are compared with those of the corresponding bulk phases at both temperatures. The convergence of the calculated results with respect to the length of simulation runs and the system size are also discussed.     

A polarizable dipole–dipole interaction model for evaluation of the interaction energies for NH···OC and CH···OC hydrogen‐bonded complexes

In this article, a polarizable dipole–dipole interaction model is established to estimate the equilibrium hydrogen bond distances and the interaction energies for hydrogen‐bonded complexes containing peptide amides and nucleic acid bases. We regard the chemical bonds N? H, C?O, and C? H as bond dipoles. The magnitude of the bond dipole moment varies according to its environment. We apply this polarizable dipole–dipole interaction model to a series of hydrogen‐bonded complexes containing the N? H···O?C and C? H···O?C hydrogen bonds, such as simple amide‐amide dimers, base‐base dimers, peptide‐base dimers, and β‐sheet models. We find that a simple two‐term function, only containing the permanent dipole–dipole interactions and the van der Waals interactions, can produce the equilibrium hydrogen bond distances compared favorably with those produced by the MP2/6‐31G(d) method, whereas the high‐quality counterpoise‐corrected (CP‐corrected) MP2/aug‐cc‐pVTZ interaction energies for the hydrogen‐bonded complexes can be well‐reproduced by a four‐term function which involves the permanent dipole–dipole interactions, the van der Waals interactions, the polarization contributions, and a corrected term. Based on the calculation results obtained from this polarizable dipole–dipole interaction model, the natures of the hydrogen bonding interactions in these hydrogen‐bonded complexes are further discussed. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Dipole moments of HDO in highly excited vibrational states measured by Stark induced photofragment quantum beat spectroscopy

We report here a measurement of electric dipole moments in highly vibrationally excited HDO molecules. We use photofragment yield detected quantum beat spectroscopy to determine electric field induced splittings of the J=1 rotational levels of HDO excited with 4, 5, and 8 quanta of vibration in the OH stretching mode. The splittings allow us to deduce mua and mub, the projections of dipole moment onto the molecular rotation inertial axes. We compare the measured HDO dipole moment components with the results of quantitative calculations based on Morse oscillator wave functions and an ab initio dipole moment surface. The vibrational dependence of the dipole moment components reflect both structural and electronic changes in HDO upon vibrational excitation; principally the vibrational dependence of the O-H bond length and bond angle, and the resulting change in orientation of the principal inertial coordinate system. The dipole moment data also provide a sensitive test of theoretical dipole moment and potential energy surfaces, particularly for molecular configurations far from equilibrium.     

Key role of the polarization anisotropy of water in modeling classical polarizable force fields

We have evaluated the extent to which classical polarizable force fields, based either on the chemical potential equalization principle or on distributed polarizabilities in the framework of the Sum of Interactions Between Fragments Ab initio computed (SIBFA), can reproduce the ab initio polarization energy and the dipole moment of three distinct water oligomers: bifurcated chains, transverse hydrogen-bonded chains, and longitudinal hydrogen-bonded chains of helical shape. To analyze the many-body polarization effect, chains of different size, i.e., from 2 to 12 water monomers, have been considered. Although the dipole moment is a well-defined quantity in both classical polarizable models and quantum mechanical methods, polarization energy can be defined unequivocally only in the former type of approaches. In this study we have used the Kitaura-Morokuma (KM) procedure. Although the KM approach is on the one hand known to overestimate the polarization energy for strongly interacting molecules, on the other hand it can account for the many-body polarization effectively, whereas some other procedures do not. Our data show that, if off-centered lone pair polarizabilities are explicitly represented, classical polarizable force fields can afford a close agreement with the ab initio results, both in terms of polarization energy and in terms of dipole moment.     

Structure, thermodynamics, and liquid-vapor equilibrium of ethanol from molecular-dynamics simulations using nonadditive interactions

We present a molecular-dynamics simulation study of the bulk and liquid-vapor interfacial properties of ethanol using a polarizable force field based on the fluctuating charge (FQ) formalism, as well as the nonpolarizable CHARMM22 force field. Both models are competitive with respect to the prediction of ambient liquid properties such as liquid density, enthalpy of vaporization, dielectric constant, and self-diffusion constants. The polarizable model predicts an average condensed-phase dipole moment of 2.2 D associated with an induced liquid-phase dipole moment of 0.6 D; though qualitatively in agreement with earlier nonadditive models as well as recent Car-Parinello calculations, the current FQ model underestimates the condensed-phase dipole moment. In terms of liquid structure, both models are in agreement with recent neutron-diffraction results of liquid ethanol structure, although the polarizable model predicts the hydroxyl-hydrogen-hydroxyl-hydrogen structure factor in closer agreement with the experimental data. In terms of interfacial properties, both models predict ambient surface tension to within 4% of the experimental value of 22.8 dyncm, while overestimating the surface excess entropy by almost a factor of 2. Both models display the characteristic preferential orientation of interfacial molecules. The polarizable model allows for a monotonic variation of the average molecular dipole moment from the bulk value to that of the vapor phase. Consequently, there is a dramatic difference in the surface potential predicted by the polarizable and nonpolarizable models. The polarizable model estimates a surface potential of -209+/-3 mV, while the nonpolarizable model yields a value of -944+/-10 mV. Finally, based on the vapor-liquid equilibrium simulation data from several temperatures, we estimate the critical properties of both models. As observed with other FQ models for associating fluids (such as water and methanol), and counter to what one would anticipate by modeling more physically the electrostatic response to local environment, the current FQ model underestimates the critical temperature and overestimates the critical density of ethanol; moreover, the FQ model is, in this respect, equivalent to the underlying fixed-charge model. These results further suggest the need to revisit polarizable models in terms of quantitative vapor-liquid equilibrium prediction.     

Modeling electrochemical interfaces from ab initio molecular dynamics: water adsorption on metal surfaces at potential of zero charge

The origin of the potential difference between the potential of zero charge of a metal/water interface and the work function of the metal is a recurring issue because it is related to how water interacts with metal surface in the absence of surface charge. Recently ab initio molecular dynamics method has been used to model electrochemical interfaces to study interfacial potential and the structure of interface water. Here, we will first introduce the computational standard hydrogen electrode method, which allows for ab initio determination of electrode potentials that can be directly compared with experiment. Then, we will review the recent progress from ab initio molecular dynamics simulation in understanding the interaction between water and metal and its impact on interfacial potential. Finally, we will give our perspective for future development of ab initio computational electrochemistry.     

Orientational motions of vibrational chromophores in molecules at the air/water interface with time-resolved sum frequency generation

The first time-resolved experiments in which interfacial molecules are pumped to excited electronic states and probed by vibrational sum frequency generation (SFG) are reported. This method was used to measure the out-of-plane rotation dynamics, i.e. time dependent changes in the polar angle, of a vibrational chromophore of an interfacial molecule. The chromophore is the carbonyl group, the rotation observed is that of the -C=O bond axis, with respect to the interfacial normal, and the interfacial molecule is coumarin 314 (C314) at the air/water interface. The orientational relaxation time was found to be 220+/-20 ps, which is much faster than the orientational relaxation time of the permanent dipole moment axis of C314 at the same interface, as obtained from pump-second harmonic probe experiments. Possible effects on the rotation of the -C=O bond axis due to the carbonyl group hydrogen bonding with interfacial water are discussed. From the measured equilibrium orientation of the permanent dipole moment axis and the carbonyl axis, and knowledge of their relative orientation in the molecule, the absolute orientation of C314 at the air/water interface is obtained.     

Ab initio based polarizable force field parametrization

Experimental and simulation studies of anion-water systems have pointed out the importance of molecular polarization for many phenomena ranging from hydrogen-bond dynamics to water interfaces structure. The study of such systems at molecular level is usually made with classical molecular dynamics simulations. Structural and dynamical features are deeply influenced by molecular and ionic polarizability, which parametrization in classical force field has been an object of long-standing efforts. Although when classical models are compared to ab initio calculations at condensed phase, it is found that the water dipole moments are underestimated by approximately 30%, while the anion shows an overpolarization at short distances. A model for chloride-water polarizable interaction is parametrized here, making use of Car-Parrinello simulations at condensed phase. The results hint to an innovative approach in polarizable force fields development, based on ab initio simulations, which do not suffer for the mentioned drawbacks. The method is general and can be applied to the modeling of different systems ranging from biomolecular to solid state simulations.     

Relativistic electronic structure of the Sr2 molecule

Diatomic Sr2 has been proposed as a good candidate for precision measurement of possible time variation of fundamental constants. Precise knowledge of its vibrational structure and Stark shift of its levels in an optical lattice is required for realization of this proposal. Motivated by these ideas we have performed a numerical calculation of interatomic potentials and transition dipole moments of the Sr2 molecule using an ab initio relativistic configuration interaction valence bond self-consistent-field method.     

Ab initio calculation of the rotational spectrum of methane vibrational ground state

In a previous article we have introduced an alternative perturbation scheme to the traditional one starting from the harmonic oscillator, rigid rotator Hamiltonian, to find approximate solutions of the spectral problem for rotation-vibration molecular Hamiltonians. The convergence of our method for the methane vibrational ground state rotational energy levels was quicker than that of the traditional method, as expected, and our predictions were quantitative. In this second article, we study the convergence of the ab initio calculation of effective dipole moments for methane within the same theoretical frame. The first order of perturbation when applied to the electric dipole moment operator of a spherical top gives the expression used in previous spectroscopic studies. Higher orders of perturbation give corrections corresponding to higher centrifugal distortion contributions and are calculated accurately for the first time. Two potential energy surfaces of the literature have been used for solving the anharmonic vibrational problem by means of the vibrational mean field configuration interaction approach. Two corresponding dipole moment surfaces were calculated in this work at a high level of theory. The predicted intensities agree better with recent experimental values than their empirical fit. This suggests that our ab initio dipole moment surface and effective dipole moment operator are both highly accurate.     

Structure, dynamics, and the free energy of solute adsorption at liquid-vapor interfaces of simple dipolar systems: molecular dynamics results for pure and mixed Stockmayer fluids

We have performed molecular dynamics simulation studies of the structural, thermodynamic, and dynamical properties of liquid-vapor interfaces of pure and binary Stockmayer fluids of different polarity. The density profiles, the width of the liquid-vapor interface, and the orientational structure of the interfaces are calculated to characterize the structural aspects of the interfaces. Among the thermodynamic properties, we have computed the surface tension and also the free energy of transfer of a charged solute across the liquid-vapor interface for both pure and mixed fluids. Among the dynamical properties of the interfaces, we have calculated the time dependence of the velocity and angular velocity autocorrelation functions, continuous and intermittent survival probabilities, mean square displacements, diffusion coefficients, and also the dipole correlation functions and orientational relaxation times of interfacial solvent molecules. It is found that the width of the interfaces decreases with increase of concentration of the more polar component. The dipole vectors of the interfacial molecules tend to align parallel to the surfaces and this alignment is enhanced with increasing dipole moment of the fluid molecules. Also, the surface tension shows an increasing trend with increase of dipole moment of the molecules. The dynamical properties of the interfaces are found to be different from those of the corresponding bulk liquid phases. In general, the molecules at the interfaces are found to rotate and translate in the parallel direction at a somewhat faster rate than the bulk molecules. Also, on increase of concentration of the more polar component, the diffusion and orientational relaxation of interfacial molecules are found to show a weaker slowing down than those of the bulk molecules, which can be attributed to the preferential presence of the more polar component in the bulk liquid regions. The temporal behavior of the interfacial survival probabilities reveals a decrease of the survival times with increasing polarity, which can be attributed to a corresponding decrease in the interfacial thickness. Results are presented for both continuous and intermittent survival times and the origins of their differences are discussed. The free energy calculations reveal no minimum at the interfaces for adsorption of a charged solute, which shows that the ions would prefer to stay in the interior of the liquid phases, rather than at interfaces, for these model dipolar systems.     

A polarizable electrostatic model of the N‐methylacetamide dimer

Our previously developed polarizable electrostatic model is applied to isolated N‐methylacetamide (NMA) and to three hydrogen‐bonded configurations of the NMA dimer. Two versions of the model are studied. In the first one (POL1), polarizability along the valence bonds is described by induced bond charge increments, and polarizability perpendicular to the bonds is described by cylindrically isotropic induced atomic dipoles. In the other version (POL2), the induced bond charge increments are replaced by induced atomic dipoles along the bonds. The parameterization is done by fitting to ab initio MP2/6‐31++G(d,p) electric potentials. The polarizability parameters are determined by subjecting the NMA molecule to various external electric fields. POL1 turns out to be easier to optimize than POL2. Both models reproduce well the ab initio electric potentials, molecular dipole moments, and molecular polarizability tensors of the monomer and the dimers. Nonpolarizable models are also investigated. The results show that polarization is very important for reproducing the electric potentials of the studied dimers, indicating that this is also the case in hydrogen bonding between peptide groups in proteins. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 22: 1933–1943, 2001     

Electrostatic properties of aqueous salt solution interfaces: a comparison of polarizable and nonpolarizable ion models

The effects of ion force field polarizability on the interfacial electrostatic properties of approximately 1 M aqueous solutions of NaCl, CsCl, and NaI are investigated using molecular dynamics simulations employing both nonpolarizable and Drude-polarizable ion sets. Differences in computed depth-dependent orientational distributions, "permanent" and induced dipole and quadrupole moment profiles, and interfacial potentials are obtained for both ion sets to further elucidate how ion polarizability affects interfacial electrostatic properties among the various salts relative to pure water. We observe that the orientations and induced dipoles of water molecules are more strongly perturbed in the presence of polarizable ions via a stronger ionic double layer effect arising from greater charge separation. Both anions and cations exhibit enhanced induced dipole moments and strong z alignment in the vicinity of the Gibbs dividing surface (GDS) with the magnitude of the anion induced dipoles being nearly an order of magnitude larger than those of the cations and directed into the vapor phase. Depth-dependent profiles for the trace and z z components of the water molecular quadrupole moment tensors reveal 40% larger quadrupole moments in the bulk phase relative to the vapor which mimics a similar observed 40% increase in the average water dipole moment. Across the GDS, the water molecular quadrupole moments increase nonmonotonically (in contrast to the water dipoles) and exhibit a locally reduced contribution just below the surface due to both orientational and polarization effects. Computed interfacial potentials for the nonpolarizable salts yield values 20-60 mV more positive than pure water and increase by an additional 30-100 mV when ion polarizability is included. A rigorous decomposition of the total interfacial potential into ion monopole, water and ion dipole, and water quadrupole components reveals that a very strong, positive ion monopole contribution is offset by negative contributions from all other potential sources. Water quadrupole components modulated by the water density contribute significantly to the observed interfacial potential increments and almost entirely explain observed differences in the interfacial potentials for the two chloride salts. By lumping all remaining nonquadrupole interfacial potential contributions into a single "effective" dipole potential, we observe that the ratio of quadrupole to "effective" dipole contributions range from 2:1 in CsCl to 1:1.5 in NaI, suggesting that both contributions are comparably important in determining the interfacial potential increments. We also find that oscillations in the quadrupole potential in the double layer region are opposite in sign and partially cancel those of the "effective" dipole potential.     

Effect of flexibility on surface tension and coexisting densities of water

Molecular dynamics simulations of pure water at the liquid-vapor interface are performed using direct simulation of interfaces in a liquid slab geometry. The effect of intramolecular flexibility on coexisting densities and surface tension is analyzed. The dipole moment profile across the liquid-vapor interface shows different values for the liquid and vapor phases. The flexible model is a polarizable model. This effect is minor for liquid densities and is large for surface tension. The liquid densities increase from 2% at 300 K to 9% at 550 K when the force field is changed from a fully rigid simple point charge extended (SPCE) model to that of a fully flexible model with the same intermolecular interaction parameters. The increases in surface tension at both temperatures are around 11% and 36%, respectively. The calculated properties of the flexible models are closer to the experimental data than those of the rigid SPCE. The effect of the maximum number of reciprocal vectors (h(z) (max)) and the surface area on the calculated properties at 300 K is also analyzed. The coexiting densities are not sensitive to those variables. The surface tension fluctuates with h(z) (max) with an amplitude larger than 10 mN m(-1). The effect of using small interfacial areas is slightly larger than the error in the simulations.     

Water liquid-vapor equilibria predicted by refined ab initio derived potentials

Coexistence properties for water near the critical point using several ab initio models were calculated using grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations with multiple histogram reweighting techniques. These models, that have proved to yield a good reproduction of the water properties at ambient conditions, perform rather well, improving the performance of a previous ab initio model. It is also shown that bulk geometry and dipole values, predicted by the simulation, can be used and a good approximation obtained with a polarizable rigid water model but not when polarization is excluded.