Free energy decompositions illuminate synergistic effects in interfacial binding thermodynamics of mixed surfactant systems.

Recent vibrational sum frequency generation spectroscopic experiments [Sengupta et al., J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 13, 11391-11397 (2022)] demonstrated synergistic interfacial adsorption effects between the anionic dodecyl sulfate (DS-) and the polar, but charge-neutral hexaethylene glycol monododecyl ether (C12E6), surfactants. In this study, the interfacial adsorption thermodynamics underlying these synergistic effects are analyzed through free energy decompositions. A general decomposition method utilizing alchemical intermediate states is outlined. Combining free energy decompositions with the potential distribution theorem illuminates the statistical interpretations of correlated effects between different system components. This approach allows for the identification of the physical effects leading to synergistic adsorption thermodynamics of DS- binding to the air-C12E6-water interface. The binding properties are found to result from a combination of effects predominantly including energetic van der Waals stabilization between DS- and C12E6, as well as competing energetic and entropic effects due to changes in the interfacial water structure as a result of introducing a C12E6 monolayer into the bare air-water interface.

The behavior of methane-water mixtures under elevated pressures from simulations using many-body potentials.

Non-polarizable empirical potentials have been proven to be incapable of capturing the mixing of methane-water mixtures at elevated pressures. Although density functional theory-based ab initio simulations may circumvent this discrepancy, they are limited in terms of the relevant time and length scales associated with mixing phenomena. Here, we show that the many-body MB-nrg potential, designed to reproduce methane-water interactions with coupled cluster accuracy, successfully captures this phenomenon up to 3 GPa and 500 K with varying methane concentrations. Two-phase simulations and long time scales that are required to fully capture the mixing, affordable due to the speed and accuracy of the MBX software, are assessed. Constructing the methane-water equation of state across the phase diagram shows that the stable mixtures are denser than the sum of their parts at a given pressure and temperature. We find that many-body polarization plays a central role, enhancing the induced dipole moments of methane by 0.20 D during mixing under pressure. Overall, the mixed system adopts a denser state, which involves a significant enthalpic driving force as elucidated by a systematic many-body energy decomposition analysis.

Nature of Alkali Ion-Water Interactions: Insights from Many-Body Representations and Density Functional Theory. II.

Interaction energies of alkali ion-water dimers, M+(H2O), and trimers, M+(H2O)2, with M = Li, Na, K, Rb, and Cs, are investigated using various many-body potential energy functions and exchange-correlation functionals selected across the hierarchy of density functional theory approximations. Analysis of interaction energy decompositions indicates that close-range interactions such as Pauli repulsion, charge transfer, and charge penetration must be captured in order to reproduce accurate interaction energies. In particular, it is found that simple classical polarizable models must be supplemented with dedicated terms which account for these close-range interactions in order to achieve chemical accuracy. It is also found that the exchange-correlation functionals mostly differ from each other in their Pauli repulsion + dispersion energies and, hence, benefit from the inclusion of nonlocal terms such as Hartree-Fock exchange and dependence on the electronic kinetic energy density in order to reproduce the interactions that contribute to this term, namely, Pauli repulsion and intermediate-range dispersion. As a continuation of the analysis performed in J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2019, 15, 2983, 10.1021/acs.jctc.9b00064, we make comparisons between findings for alkali ion-water interactions with those for halide-water interactions.

Assessing Many-Body Effects of Water Self-Ions. II: H3O+(H2O)n Clusters.

The importance of many-body effects in the hydration of the hydronium ion (H3O+) is investigated through a systematic analysis of the many-body expansion of the interaction energy carried out at the coupled-cluster level of theory for the low-lying isomers of H3O+(H2O)n clusters with n = 1-5. This is accomplished by partitioning individual fragments extracted from the whole clusters into "groups" that are classified by both the number of H3O+ and water molecules and the hydrogen-bonding connectivity within a given fragment. Effects due to the presence of the Zundel ion, (H5O2)+, are analyzed by further partitioning fragment groups by the "context" of their parent clusters. With the aid of the absolutely localized molecular orbital energy decomposition analysis (ALMO EDA), this structure-based partitioning is found to largely correlate with the character of different many-body interactions, such as cooperative and anticooperative hydrogen bonding, within each fragment. This analysis emphasizes the importance of a many-body representation of inductive electrostatics and charge transfer in modeling the hydration of an excess proton in water. The comparison between the reference coupled-cluster many-body interaction terms with the corresponding values obtained with various exchange-correlation functionals demonstrates that many of these functionals yield an unbalanced treatment of the H3O+(H2O)n configuration space.

Nature of Halide-Water Interactions: Insights from Many-Body Representations and Density Functional Theory.

Interaction energies of halide-water dimers, X-(H2O), and trimers, X-(H2O)2, with X = F, Cl, Br, and I, are investigated using various many-body models and exchange correlation functionals selected across the hierarchy of density functional theory (DFT) approximations. Analysis of the results obtained with the many-body models demonstrates the need to capture important close-range interactions in the regime of large intermolecular orbital overlap, such as charge transfer and charge penetration. Failure to reproduce these effects can lead to large deviations relative to reference data calculated at the coupled cluster level of theory. Decompositions of interaction energies carried out with the absolutely localized molecular orbital energy decomposition analysis (ALMO-EDA) method demonstrate that permanent and inductive electrostatic energies are accurately reproduced by all classes of XC functionals (from generalized gradient corrected (GGA) to hybrid and range-separated hybrid functionals), while significant variance is found for charge transfer energies predicted by different XC functionals. Since GGA and hybrid XC functionals predict the most and least attractive charge transfer energies, respectively, the large variance is likely due to the delocalization error. In this scenario, the hybrid XC functionals are then expected to provide the most accurate charge transfer energies. The sum of Pauli repulsion and dispersion energies is the most varied among the XC functionals, but it is found that a correspondence between the interaction energy and the ALMO-EDA total frozen energy may be used to determine accurate estimates for these contributions.

Assessing Many-Body Effects of Water Self-Ions. I: OH-(H2O) n Clusters.

The importance of many-body effects in the hydration of the hydroxide ion (OH-) is investigated through a systematic analysis of the many-body expansion of the interaction energy carried out at the CCSD(T) level of theory, extrapolated to the complete basis set limit, for the low-lying isomers of OH-(H2O) n clusters, with n = 1-5. This is accomplished by partitioning individual fragments extracted from the whole clusters into "groups" that are classified by both the number of OH- and water molecules and the hydrogen bonding connectivity within each fragment. With the aid of the absolutely localized molecular orbital energy decomposition analysis (ALMO-EDA) method, this structure-based partitioning is found to largely correlate with the character of different many-body interactions, such as cooperative and anticooperative hydrogen bonding, within each fragment. This analysis emphasizes the importance of a many-body representation of inductive electrostatics and charge transfer in modeling OH- hydration. Furthermore, the rapid convergence of the many-body expansion of the interaction energy also suggests a rigorous path for the development of analytical potential energy functions capable of describing individual OH--water many-body terms, with chemical accuracy. Finally, a comparison between the reference CCSD(T) many-body interaction terms with the corresponding values obtained with various exchange-correlation functionals demonstrates that range-separated, dispersion-corrected, hybrid functionals exhibit the highest accuracy, while GGA functionals, with or without dispersion corrections, are inadequate to describe OH--water interactions.