Organic-Silica Interactions in Saline: Elucidating the Structural Influence of Calcium in Low-Salinity Enhanced Oil Recovery.

Enhanced oil recovery using low-salinity solutions to sweep sandstone reservoirs is a widely-practiced strategy. The mechanisms governing this remain unresolved. Here, we elucidate the role of Ca2+ by combining chemical force microscopy (CFM) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We probe the influence of electrolyte composition and concentration on the adsorption of a representative molecule, positively-charged alkylammonium, at the aqueous electrolyte/silica interface, for four electrolytes: NaCl, KCl, MgCl2, and CaCl2. CFM reveals stronger adhesion on silica in CaCl2 compared with the other electrolytes, and shows a concentration-dependent adhesion not observed for the other electrolytes. Using MD simulations, we model the electrolytes at a negatively-charged amorphous silica substrate and predict the adsorption of methylammonium. Our simulations reveal four classes of surface adsorption site, where the prevalence of these sites depends only on CaCl2 concentration. The sites relevant to strong adhesion feature the O- silica site and Ca2+ in the presence of associated Cl-, which gain prevalence at higher CaCl2 concentration. Our simulations also predict the adhesion force profile to be distinct for CaCl2 compared with the other electrolytes. Together, these analyses explain our experimental data. Our findings indicate in general how silica wettability may be manipulated by electrolyte concentration.

Sampling the structure of calcium carbonate nanoparticles with metadynamics.

Metadynamics is employed to sample the configurations available to calcium carbonate nanoparticles in water, and to map an approximate free energy as a function of crystalline order. These data are used to investigate the validity of bulk and ideal surface energies in predicting structure at the nanoscale. Results indicate that such predictions can determine the structure and morphology of particles as small as 3-4 nm in diameter. Comparisons are made to earlier results on 2 nm particles under constant volume conditions which support nanoconfinement as a mechanism for enhancing the stability of amorphous calcium carbonate. Our results indicate that crystalline calcitelike structure is thermodynamically preferred for nanoparticles as small as 2 nm in the absence of nanoconfinement.

Theoretical study of phase transitions in Kr and Ar clathrate hydrates from structure II to structure I under pressure.

The theory developed in our earlier papers is extended to predict dynamical and thermodynamic properties of clathrate structures by accounting for the possibility of multiple filling of cavities by guest molecules. The method is applied to the thermodynamic properties of argon and krypton hydrates, considering both structures I (sI) and II (sII), in which the small cages can be singly occupied and large cages of sII can be singly or doubly occupied. It was confirmed that the structure of the clathrate hydrate is determined by two main factors: intermolecular interaction between guest and host molecules and the configurational entropy. It is shown that for guests weakly interacting with water molecules, such as argon or krypton, the free energy of host lattices without the contribution of entropy is the main structure-determining factor for clathrate hydrates, and it is a cause of hydrate sII formation at low pressure with these guests. Explicit account of the entropy contribution in the Gibbs free energy allows one to determine the stability of hydrate phases and to estimate the line of structural transition from sII to sI in P-T plane. The structural transition between sII and sI in argon and krypton hydrates at high pressure is shown to be the consequence of increasing intermolecular interaction and the degree of occupancy of the large cavities.

Metadynamics simulations of calcite crystallization on self-assembled monolayers.

We show that recent developments in the application of metadynamics methods to direct simulations of crystallization make it possible to predict the orientation of crystals grown on self-assembled monolayers. In contrast to previous studies, the method allows for dynamic treatment of the organic component and the inclusion of explicit surface water without the need for computationally intensive interfacial energy calculations or prior knowledge of the interfacial structure. The method is applied to calcite crystallization on carboxylate terminated alkanethiols arrayed on Au (111). We demonstrate that a dynamic treatment of the monolayer is sufficient to reproduce the experimental results without the need to impose epitaxial constraints on the system. We also observe an odd-even effect in the variation of selectivity with organic chain length, reproducing experimentally observed orientations in both cases. Analysis of the ordering process in our simulations suggests a cycle of mutual control in which both the organic and mineral components induce complementary local order across the interface, leading to the formation of a critical crystalline region. The influence of pH, together with some factors that might affect the range of applicability of our method, is discussed.

Crystal-like low frequency phonons in the low-density amorphous and high-density amorphous ices.

The structure and vibrational properties of high- and low-density amorphous (HDA and LDA, respectively) ices have been determined using reverse Monte Carlo, molecular dynamics, and lattice dynamics simulations. This combined approach leads to a more accurate and detailed structural description of HDA and LDA ices when compared to experiment than was previously possible. The water molecules in these ices form well connected hydrogen-bond networks that exhibit modes of vibration that extend throughout the solid and can involve up to 70% of all molecules. However, the networks display significant differences in their dynamical behavior. In HDA, the extended low-frequency vibrational modes occur in dense parallel two dimensional layers of water that are approximately 10 nm thick. In contrast, the extended modes in LDA resemble a holey structure that encapsulates many small pockets of nonparticipating water molecules.

Molecular dynamics study of methane hydrate formation at a water/methane interface.

We present molecular dynamics simulation results of a liquid water/methane interface, with and without an oligomer of poly(methylaminoethylmethacrylate), PMAEMA. PMAEMA is an active component of a commercial low dosage hydrate inhibitor (LDHI). Simulations were performed in the constant NPT ensemble at temperatures of 220, 235, 240, 245, and 250 K and a pressure of 300 bar. The simulations show the onset of methane hydrate growth within 30 ns for temperatures below 245 K in the methane/water systems; at 240 K there is an induction period of ca. 20 ns, but at lower temperatures growth commences immediately. The simulations were analyzed to calculate hydrate content, the propensity for hydrogen bond formation, and how these were affected by both temperature and the presence of the LDHI. As expected, both the hydrogen bond number and hydrate content decreased with increasing temperature, though little difference was observed between the lowest two temperatures considered. In the presence of PMAEMA, the temperature below which sustained hydrate growth occurred was observed to decrease. Some of the implications for the role of PMAEMA in LDHIs are discussed.

Free energy and structure of calcium carbonate nanoparticles during early stages of crystallization.

We introduce a metadynamics based scheme for computing the free energy of nanoparticles as a function of their crystalline order. The method is applied to small nanoparticles of the biomineral calcium carbonate to determine the preferred structure during early stages of crystal growth. For particles 2 nm in diameter, we establish a large energetic preference for amorphous particle morphologies. Particles with partial crystalline order consistent with vaterite are also observed with substantially lower probability. The absence of the stable calcite phase and stability of the amorphous state support recent conjectures that calcite formation starts via the deposition of amorphous calcium carbonate.

Metadynamics simulations of ice nucleation and growth.

The metadynamics method for accelerating rate events in molecular simulations is applied to the problem of ice freezing. We demonstrate homogeneous nucleation and growth of ice at 180 K in the isothermal-isobaric ensemble without the presence of external fields or surfaces. This result represents the first report of continuous and dynamic ice nucleation in a system of freely evolving density. Simulations are conducted using a variety of periodic simulation domains. In all cases the cubic polymorph ice I(c) is grown. The influence of boundary effects on estimates of the nucleation free energy barrier are discussed in relation to differences between this and earlier work.

Thermodynamic discontinuity between low-density amorphous ice and supercooled water.

A combination of reverse Monte Carlo, molecular dynamics, and lattice dynamics simulations were used to obtain structural and thermodynamic data for low-density amorphous ice. A thermodynamically discontinuous transformation to a phase with properties and a structure consistent with supercooled liquid water is found to occur at approximately 130 K. Quantum corrections have a profound effect on thermodynamic properties and the location of important thermodynamic points in the water phase diagram.

Drug Self-Assembly on DNA: Sequence Effects with trans-bis-(4-N-methylpyridiniumyl)diphenyl Porphyrin and Hoechst 33258.

Abstract Self assembly in biological systems is increasingly being recognised as an important phenomenon. We have examined two model systems: the cationic meso-substituted free base porphyrin derivative frans-bis-(4-N-methylpyridiniumyl)diphenyl porphyrin (t-H(2)P) and Hoechst 33258 (Hoechst) both of which were known to assemble on DNA. t-H(2)P self-assembles in solution under appropriate conditions, whereas Hoechst does not. By varying ionic strength and ligand: DNA mixing ratios, these features together with their different steric constraints have led to quite different DNA binding behaviour. Hoechst on poly[d(A-T)](2) stacks across the major groove, probably after filling its well established monomeric minor groove binding mode. By way of contrast the Hoechst/poly[d(G-C)](2) self-assembled aggregates involve partially intercalated molecules stacking in the major groove. The binding mode adopted by t-H(2)P with poly[d(A-T)](2) and poly[d(G-C)](2) appears to be kinetically controlled and to be determined by the pre-existence of monomer binding and/or ligand stacks in solution. With poly[d(A-T)](2) the modes adopted both involve displacing the DNA bases to be more parallel than perpendicular to the helix axis. One is probably based on porphyrin intercalation and the other on minor groove binding. Resonance light scattering, linear dichroism, circular dichroism, normal absorption and fluorescence spectroscopies have been used to characterise the self-assembly in these systems.