QuantumATK: an integrated platform of electronic and atomic-scale modelling tools.

QuantumATK is an integrated set of atomic-scale modelling tools developed since 2003 by professional software engineers in collaboration with academic researchers. While different aspects and individual modules of the platform have been previously presented, the purpose of this paper is to give a general overview of the platform. The QuantumATK simulation engines enable electronic-structure calculations using density functional theory or tight-binding model Hamiltonians, and also offers bonded or reactive empirical force fields in many different parametrizations. Density functional theory is implemented using either a plane-wave basis or expansion of electronic states in a linear combination of atomic orbitals. The platform includes a long list of advanced modules, including Green's-function methods for electron transport simulations and surface calculations, first-principles electron-phonon and electron-photon couplings, simulation of atomic-scale heat transport, ion dynamics, spintronics, optical properties of materials, static polarization, and more. Seamless integration of the different simulation engines into a common platform allows for easy combination of different simulation methods into complex workflows. Besides giving a general overview and presenting a number of implementation details not previously published, we also present four different application examples. These are calculations of the phonon-limited mobility of Cu, Ag and Au, electron transport in a gated 2D device, multi-model simulation of lithium ion drift through a battery cathode in an external electric field, and electronic-structure calculations of the composition-dependent band gap of SiGe alloys.

Amide I bands of terminally blocked alanine in solutions investigated by infrared spectroscopy and density functional theory calculation: hydrogen-bonding interactions and solvent effects.

Structural aspects of terminally blocked alanine trans-N-acetyl-L-alanyl-trans-N'-methylamide (Ac-Ala-NHMe) in several different solvents were compared by attenuated total reflection infrared (ATR-IR) spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The amide I bands between 1600 and 1700 cm(-1) appeared to change depending on media, indicating dissimilar hydrogen-bonding interactions among the peptides and solvent molecules. The minimum energy geometry in the isolated gas phase and aqueous environments were calculated at the B3LYP/6-311++G** theoretical level. In the solid state, Ac-Ala-NHMe is assumed to have an extended beta-stranded structure (C5), whereas it is assumed to have a cyclic structure (C7eq or alphaL) in a nonpolar tetrahydrofuran (THF) solvent. The optimized backbone dihedral angles (Phi, Psi) of Ac-Ala-NHMe plus four explicit water molecules were estimated to be -94 degrees and +133 degrees, respectively, indicating the polyproline II structure (PII). The energy differences between the most stable conformers were predicted to be larger for Ac-Ala-NHMe, which implies that more conformational ensemble structures should coexist for the gas phase than for the aqueous medium with explicit water molecules.

Molecular Thermodynamics of Methane Solvation in tert-Butanol-Water Mixtures.

We studied solvation structure and thermodynamics of methane in mixtures of tert-butanol and water using computer simulations. We show that for alcohol mole fractions below 20%, methane is preferentially solvated by hydrated alcohol clusters. Because methane expels water molecules from these clusters, a large endothermic solvent reorganization enthalpy occurs. This process is responsible for the experimentally observed maximum of the heat of methane solvation close to 5% alcohol in the mixture and contributes to a positive entropy change relative to solvation in pure water. Because the structural solvent reorganization enthalpy is enthalpy-entropy compensating, the methane solvation free energy is a smoothly varying function of the alcohol/water solution composition.

Enthalpy-entropy compensation in the effects of urea on hydrophobic interactions.

By comparison of neopentane pair potentials of mean force (PMFs) in room temperature water and 6.9 molar aqueous urea, it was recently shown that urea molecules affect the PMF minima in an unexpected way (Lee, M.-E.; van der Vegt, N. F. A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 4948). While the first PMF minimum in urea solution has an identical shape and depth to those of the corresponding minimum in water, the second minimum in urea solution is broader, deeper, and shifted out to a slightly larger distance. Here, we present a study of the enthalpic and entropic contributions to these PMFs. Its significance for understanding the driving forces responsible for thermodynamically favorable neopentane contact and solvent-separated distances in urea solution is discussed. We propose that the solute-solvent entropy and solute-solvent enthalpy changes should be analyzed for obtaining an unambiguous molecular-scale picture. In urea solution, enthalpy-entropy compensation effects associated with structural solvent reorganization processes are large, causing changes of the system's enthalpy and entropy with hydrophobic pair separation to be very different from the solute-solvent enthalpy and entropy changes. The entropies are discussed in terms of the molecular-scale solvent reorganization processes.

Does urea denature hydrophobic interactions?

It is generally accepted that clusters of hydrophobic moieties in water fall apart when urea is added in substantial amounts. We performed atomistic molecular dynamics simulations of hydrophobic solute pairs and found evidence that urea molecules act as "glue" bridging these pairs thereby holding them together. The picture is quite general as it applies to aliphatic-aliphatic as well as aromatic-aromatic interactions. The implications of this finding on the role of urea as a protein denaturant are discussed.

A new force field for atomistic simulations of aqueous tertiary butanol solutions.

We present a new tert-butanol force field parametrized to reproduce the mixture thermodynamics of tert-butanol/water over a wide range of solution compositions at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. The experimental Kirkwood-Buff integrals, which quantify preferential solvation of solution components by the same species or by the other components, were used as target values to be reproduced. Water was modeled using the simple point charge model. In the range of alcohol mole fractions between 0.02 and 0.98, our optimized model satisfactorily reproduces alcohol-alcohol, water-water, and alcohol-water aggregation behavior. As a consequence, the solution activity derivatives are reproduced as well. A comparison has been made with solution activities obtained by free energy calculations (i.e., thermodynamic integration). It clearly shows that the Kirkwood-Buff based approach performs superior in predicting solution activities of liquid mixtures. The new tert-butanol model has been used to examine the solution structure and hydrophobic interactions in aqueous tert-butanol at the various mixture compositions. A comparison is made with structural data obtained by neutron diffraction.