Relation between the melting temperature and the temperature of maximum density for the most common models of water

Water exhibits a maximum in density at normal pressure at 4 degrees above its melting point. The reproduction of this maximum is a stringent test for potential models used commonly in simulations of water. The relation between the melting temperature and the temperature of maximum density for these potential models is unknown mainly due to our ignorance about the melting temperature of these models. Recently we have determined the melting temperature of ice I(h) for several commonly used models of water (SPC, SPC/E, TIP3P, TIP4P, TIP4P/Ew, and TIP5P). In this work we locate the temperature of maximum density for these models. In this way the relative location of the temperature of maximum density with respect to the melting temperature is established. For SPC, SPC/E, TIP3P, TIP4P, and TIP4P/Ew the maximum in density occurs at about 21-37 K above the melting temperature. In all these models the negative charge is located either on the oxygen itself or on a point along the H-O-H bisector. For the TIP5P and TIP5P-E models the maximum in density occurs at about 11 K above the melting temperature. The location of the negative charge appears as a geometrical crucial factor to the relative position of the temperature of maximum density with respect to the melting temperature.     

The melting point of ice Ih for common water models calculated from direct coexistence of the solid-liquid interface

In this work we present an implementation for the calculation of the melting point of ice I(h) from direct coexistence of the solid-liquid interface. We use molecular dynamics simulations of boxes containing liquid water and ice in contact. The implementation is based on the analysis of the evolution of the total energy along NpT simulations at different temperatures. We report the calculation of the melting point of ice I(h) at 1 bar for seven water models: SPC/E, TIP4P, TIP4P-Ew, TIP4P/ice, TIP4P/2005, TIP5P, and TIP5P-E. The results for the melting temperature from the direct coexistence simulations of this work are in agreement (within the statistical uncertainty) with those obtained previously by us from free energy calculations. By taking into account the results of this work and those of our free energy calculations, recommended values of the melting point of ice I(h) at 1 bar for the above mentioned water models are provided.     

Communication: The effect of dispersion corrections on the melting temperature of liquid water

The melting temperature (T(m)) of liquid water with the Becke-Lee-Yang-Parr (BLYP) density functional including dispersion corrections (BLYP-D) and the Thole-type, version 3 (TTM3-F) ab-initio based flexible, polarizable classical potential is reported via constant pressure and constant enthalpy (NPH) molecular dynamics simulations of an ice I(h)-liquid coexisting system. Dispersion corrections to BLYP lower T(m) to about 360 K, a large improvement over the value of T(m) > 400 K previously obtained with the original BLYP functional under the same simulation conditions. For TTM3-F, T(m) = 248 K from classical molecular dynamics simulations.     

Simulated surface tensions of common water models

Initial simulated values of the surface tension for the SPC/E water model have indicated excellent agreement with experiment. More recently, differing values have been obtained which are significantly lower than previous estimates. Here, we attempt to explain the differences between the previous studies and show that a variety of simulation conditions can affect the final surface tension values. Consistent values for the surface tensions of six common fixed charge water models (TIP3P, SPC, SPC/E, TIP4P, TIP5P, and TIP6P) are then determined for four temperatures between 275 and 350 K. The SPC/E and TIP6P models provide the best agreement with experiment.     

The most common chemical replacements in drug-like compounds

We have written a method that extracts one-to-one replacements of chemical groups in pairs of drug-like molecules with the same biological activity and counts the frequency of the replacements in a large collection of such molecules. There are two variations on the method that differ in their treatment of replacements in rings. This method is one possible approach to systematically identify candidate bioisosteres. Here we look at the MDDR database because it has a large diversity of drug-like compounds in a large number of therapeutic areas. The most frequent replacements in MDDR seem generally consistent with medicinal chemistry intuition about what chemical groups are equivalent or with groups that are easily converted by synthetic or metabolic pathways. This method can be applied to any set of molecules wherein the molecules can be paired by similar biological activity.     

The melting point of hexagonal ice (Ih) is strongly dependent on the quadrupole of the water models

It is shown that quadrupolar interactions play a determinant role in the melting temperatures of common water models and that there is a simple relationship between the strength of the quadrupolar forces and the position of the negative charge; our conclusion is that acceptable predictions for the melting temperature can only be obtained when the negatively charged site is shifted from the oxygen atom towards the hydrogens.     

The double endothermic phenomenon of polytetrahydrofurans in the melting temperature region

Summary A double endothermic peak appears in the DSC curve of a PTHF oligomer. In order to investigate this phenomenon, a two-component blend of PTHF was prepared with a number average molecular mass of M=1400, and the double endothermic phenomena were investigated by TM-DSC. The larger the amount of the long chain component in the PTHF blend, the smaller the difference between the C_p-T curve and the normal DSC curve. The amounts of endothermic energy H_endo,1, H_endo,2 and exothermic energy H_exo,1, H_exo,2 in each peak at infinite modulation frequency were estimated.     

The most stable CNDO/2 water dimer

The most stable CNDO/2 water dimer is a planarC _2h species with a partial O-O bond. STO-3G calculations indicate that the stability of this structure is due to an artifact of the CNDO/2 method.     

Thermal stability of some pesticides at the melting temperature

The melting process of unstable pesticides such as methomyl, atrazine, lenacil, captan, daminozide and dodine has been investigated by DSC. The influence of the heating rate on the melting enthalpy, melting temperature and cryometric determination of purity was studied. The mean rate of thermal decomposition at the melting temperature was introduced to compare the stability of the examined pesticides. The investigated pesticides may be classified into two groups. In the first group the determination of purity is independent of heating rates and in the second one the purity is dependent on the heating rates.     

Substrate effect on the melting temperature of gold nanoparticles

Previous experimental, molecular dynamics, and thermodynamic researches on the melting temperature of Au nanoparticles on tungsten substrate provide entirely different results. To account for the substrate effect upon the melting point of nanoparticles, three different substrates were tested by using a thermodynamic model: tungsten, amorphous carbon, and graphite. The results reveal that the melting point suppression of a substrate-supported Au nanoparticle is principally ruled by the free surface-to-volume ratio of the particle or the contact angle between the particle and the substrate. When the contact angle θ is less than 90°, a stronger size-dependent melting point depression compared with those for free nanoparticles is predicted; when the contact angle θ is greater than 90°, the melting temperature of the supported Au nanoparticles are somewhat higher than those for free nanoparticles.     

Defects can increase the melting temperature of DNA-nanoparticle assemblies

DNA-gold nanoparticle assemblies have shown promise as an alternative technology to DNA microarrays for DNA detection and RNA profiling. Understanding the effect of DNA sequences on the melting temperature of the system is central to developing reliable detection technology. We studied the effects of DNA base-pairing defects, such as mismatches and deletions, on the melting temperature of DNA-nanoparticle assemblies. We found that, contrary to the general assumption that defects lower the melting temperature of DNA, some defects increase the melting temperature of DNA-linked nanoparticle assemblies. The effects of mismatches and deletions were found to depend on the specific base pair, the sequence, and the location of the defects. Our results demonstrate that the surface-bound DNA exhibit hybridization behavior different from that of free DNA. Such findings indicate that a detailed understanding of DNA-nanoparticle assembly phase behavior is required for quantitative interpretation of DNA-nanoparticle aggregation.     

Development and validation of an HPLC-DAD method for the simultaneous determination of most common rice pesticides in paddy water systems

Rice crop is mainly cultivated in large river basins which constitute unique ecosystems and their ecological quality is invaluable. However, the high loads of pesticides used in rice cultivation contribute to the contamination of the water resources in such rice-cultivated regions. To regularly monitor the quality of such water resources there is a need for a rapid and sensitive multi-residue analytical method. This study presents the development and validation of a new analytical method for the simultaneous determination of most rice pesticides including penoxsulam, tricyclazole, propanil and its main metabolite 3,4-dichloroaniline, azoxystrobin, molinate, profoxydim and deltamethrin. A solid-phase extraction (SPE) procedure followed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with diode array detection (DAD) was used. A C₁₈ RP column operated at 30°C was utilised and the analytes were separated with a mobile phase of acetonitrile/water mixture in a linear gradient. Clean-up of water samples and isolation of pesticides was performed on SPE Bakerbond octadecyl cartridges and an ethyl acetate-dichlomethane mixture (9?:?1 v/v, 2?mL) was used for elution. Method validation was performed by means of intra-day (n?=?5) and inter-day accuracy and precision (n?=?8), sensitivity and linearity. The relative recoveries of the pesticides in paddy water samples were acceptable (80.6–110.2%) and the relative standard deviation (RSD%) ranged from 1.9 to 7.6%. Limits of detection (LOD) and limits of quantification (LOQ) varied from 0.1 to 0.8?ng?mL^?1 and 0.25 to 2.0?ng?mL^?1 respectively, depending on the analyte. The method was subsequently applied for the determination of pesticide residues in paddy and canal water samples. Tricyclazole was the most frequently detected pesticide at the highest concentrations, while herbicides were less frequently detected and at lower concentrations. The method described could be a valuable tool for regular monitoring of surface water systems in rice-cultivated basins.     

Effect of strain on the thermodynamic melting temperature of polymers

X-ray diffraction, sonic velocity, and birefringence measurements were used to study the variation of the apparent melting point of strained natural rubber and polychloroprene vulcanizates with elongation ratio and crystallization temperature. The procedure of Hoffman and Weeks was employed to obtain the thermodynamic melting point, t_m, for each elongation ratio α. The parameter β relating to the distribution of fold lengths is unusually large for low elongation ratios and decreases into the usual range only at higher elongations. The observed variations of t_m with α for these two polymers are compared with the theoretical predictions of Flory and Roe and Krigbaum. Although the predictions of the Flory theory depend somewhat upon the value assigned for the number of repeating units per statistical link, and this parameter is not well known for polychloroprene, we nevertheless conclude that his treatment offers a better representation of the melting point elevation for high elongations. Due to the approximations introduced, the treatment of Flory is not valid for lower elongations. Any attempt to improve this treatment must begin by specifying the free energy of the semicrystalline system, which implies a knowledge of the distribution of crystallite orientations and how this distribution varies with strain and with the crystallization conditions.     

The influence of temperature and density functional models in ab initio molecular dynamics simulation of liquid water

The performance of density functional theory methods for the modeling of condensed aqueous systems is hard to predict and validation by ab initio molecular simulation of liquid water is absolutely necessary. In order to assess the reliability of these tests, the effect of temperature on the structure and dynamics of liquid water has been characterized with 16 simulations of 20 ps in the temperature range of 280-380 K. We find a pronounced influence of temperature on the pair correlation functions and on the diffusion constant including nonergodic behavior on the time scale of the simulation in the lower temperature range (which includes ambient temperature). These observations were taken into account in a consistent comparison of a series of density functionals (BLYP, PBE, TPSS, OLYP, HCTH120, HCTH407). All simulations were carried out using an ab initio molecular dynamics approach in which wave functions are represented using Gaussians and the density is expanded in an auxiliary basis of plane waves. Whereas the first three functionals show similar behavior, it is found that the latter three functionals yield more diffusive dynamics and less structure.     

Superdrawing of polytetrafluoroethylene virgin powder above the static melting temperature

A new two‐stage draw technique was successfully applied to the superdrawing of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) virgin powder. A film, compression‐molded from powder below the melting temperature (T_m = 335 °C), was initially solid‐state coextruded to an extrusion draw ratio (EDR) of 6–20 at 325 °C, about 10 °C below the T_m. These extrudates from the first‐stage draw were further drawn by a second‐stage pin draw in the temperature (T_d) range of 300–370 °C that covers the static T_m. The maximum achievable total draw ratio was ～60 at a T_d = 300 °C and increased rapidly with increasing T_d, reaching a maximum of 100–160 at a temperature window between 340 and 360 °C, depending on the initial EDRs. At yet higher T_d's, the ductility was lost as a result of melting. The high ductility of the PTFE extrudates at such high temperatures was ascribed to the improvement of interfacial adhesion and bonding between the deformed powder particles upon the first‐stage extrusion combined with the rapid heating of only a portion of the extrudate followed by the elongation at a high rate. The highly drawn fibers were highly crystalline (χ_c ≤ 87%) and showed high chain orientation (f_c ≤ 0.997) and a large crystallite size along the chain axis (D₀₀₁₅ ≤ 160 nm). The molecular draw ratio, estimated from the entropic shrinkage above the T_m, was close to the macroscopic deformation ratio independently of the initial EDRs. These results indicate that the draw was highly efficient in terms of chain extension, orientation, and crystallization. Thus, the maximum tensile modulus and strength achieved in this work were 102 ± 5 and 1.4 ± 0.2 GPa, respectively, at 24 °C. These tensile properties are among the highest ever reported on oriented PTFE. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 39: 1995–2004, 2001     

Predicting melting temperature directly from protein sequences

Proteins of both hyperthermophilic and mesophilic microorganisms generally constitute from the same 20 amino acids; however, the extent of thermal tolerance of any given protein is an inherent property of its amino acid sequence. The present study is the first to report a rapid method for predicting Tm (melting temperature), the temperature at which 50% of the protein is unfolded, directly from protein sequences (the Tm Index program is available at http://tm.life.nthu.edu.tw/). We examined 75 complete microbial genomes using the Tm Index, and the analysis clearly differentiated hyperthermophilic from mesophilic microorganisms on this global genomic basis. These results are consistent with the previous hypothesis that hyperthermophiles express a greater number of high Tm proteins compared with mesophiles. The Tm Index will be valuable for modifying existing proteins (enzymes, protein drugs and vaccines) or designing novel proteins having a desired melting temperature.