Exploring the impact of ions on oxygen K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy in NaCl solution using the GW-Bethe-Salpeter-equation approach.

X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) is a powerful experimental tool to probe the local structure in materials with the core hole excitations. Here, the oxygen K-edge XAS spectra of the NaCl solution and pure water are computed by using a recently developed GW-Bethe-Salpeter equation approach, based on configurations modeled by path-integral molecular dynamics with the deep-learning technique. The neural network is trained on ab initio data obtained with strongly constrained and appropriately normed density functional theory. The observed changes in the XAS features of the NaCl solution, compared to those of pure water, are in good agreement between experimental and theoretical results. We provided detailed explanations for these spectral changes that occur when NaCl is solvated in pure water. Specifically, the presence of solvating ion pairs leads to localization of electron-hole excitons. Our theoretical XAS results support the theory that the effects of the solvating ions on the H-bond network are mainly confined within the first hydration shell of ions, however beyond the shell the arrangement of water molecules remains to be comparable to that observed in pure water.

Why Dissolving Salt in Water Decreases Its Dielectric Permittivity.

The dielectric permittivity of salt water decreases on dissolving more salt. For nearly a century, this phenomenon has been explained by invoking saturation in the dielectric response of the solvent water molecules. Herein, we employ an advanced deep neural network (DNN), built using data from density functional theory, to study the dielectric permittivity of sodium chloride solutions. Notably, the decrease in the dielectric permittivity as a function of concentration, computed using the DNN approach, agrees well with experiments. Detailed analysis of the computations reveals that the dominant effect, caused by the intrusion of ionic hydration shells into the solvent hydrogen-bond network, is the disruption of dipolar correlations among water molecules. Accordingly, the observed decrease in the dielectric permittivity is mostly due to increasing suppression of the collective response of solvent waters.

DeePKS + ABACUS as a Bridge between Expensive Quantum Mechanical Models and Machine Learning Potentials.

Recently, the development of machine learning (ML) potentials has made it possible to perform large-scale and long-time molecular simulations with the accuracy of quantum mechanical (QM) models. However, for different levels of QM methods, such as density functional theory (DFT) at the meta-GGA level and/or with exact exchange, quantum Monte Carlo, etc., generating a sufficient amount of data for training an ML potential has remained computationally challenging due to their high cost. In this work, we demonstrate that this issue can be largely alleviated with Deep Kohn-Sham (DeePKS), an ML-based DFT model. DeePKS employs a computationally efficient neural network-based functional model to construct a correction term added upon a cheap DFT model. Upon training, DeePKS offers closely matched energies and forces compared with high-level QM method, but the number of training data required is orders of magnitude less than that required for training a reliable ML potential. As such, DeePKS can serve as a bridge between expensive QM models and ML potentials: one can generate a decent amount of high-accuracy QM data to train a DeePKS model and then use the DeePKS model to label a much larger amount of configurations to train an ML potential. This scheme for periodic systems is implemented in a DFT package ABACUS, which is open source and ready for use in various applications.

Structural and dynamic properties of solvated hydroxide and hydronium ions in water from ab initio modeling.

Predicting the asymmetric structure and dynamics of solvated hydroxide and hydronium in water from ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) has been a challenging task. The difficulty mainly comes from a lack of accurate and efficient exchange-correlation functional in elucidating the amphiphilic nature and the ubiquitous proton transfer behaviors of the two ions. By adopting the strongly constrained and appropriately normed (SCAN) meta-generalized gradient approximation functional in AIMD simulations, we systematically examine the amphiphilic properties, the solvation structures, the electronic structures, and the dynamic properties of the two water ions. In particular, we compare these results to those predicted by the PBE0-TS functional, which is an accurate yet computationally more expensive exchange-correlation functional. We demonstrate that the general-purpose SCAN functional provides a reliable choice for describing the two water ions. Specifically, in the SCAN picture of water ions, the appearance of the fourth and fifth hydrogen bonds near hydroxide stabilizes the pot-like shape solvation structure and suppresses the structural diffusion, while the hydronium stably donates three hydrogen bonds to its neighbors. We apply a detailed analysis of the proton transfer mechanism of the two ions and find the two ions exhibit substantially different proton transfer patterns. Our AIMD simulations indicate that hydroxide diffuses more slowly than hydronium in water, which is consistent with the experimental results.

Many-body effects in the X-ray absorption spectra of liquid water.

SignificanceIn X-ray absorption spectroscopy, an electron-hole excitation probes the local atomic environment. The interpretation of the spectra requires challenging theoretical calculations, particularly in a system like liquid water, where quantum many-body effects and molecular disorder play an important role. Recent advances in theory and simulation make possible new calculations that are in good agreement with experiment, without recourse to commonly adopted approximations. Based on these calculations, the three features observed in the experimental spectra are unambiguously attributed to excitonic effects with different characteristic correlation lengths, which are distinctively affected by perturbations of the underlying H-bond structure induced by temperature changes and/or by isotopic substitution. The emerging picture of the water structure is fully consistent with the conventional tetrahedral model.

Convert Widespread Paraelectric Perovskite to Ferroelectrics.

While nature provides a plethora of perovskite materials, only a few exhibit large ferroelectricity and possibly multiferroicity. The majority of perovskite materials have the nonpolar CaTiO_{3}(CTO) structure, limiting the scope of their applications. Based on the effective Hamiltonian model as well as first-principles calculations, we propose a general thin-film design method to stabilize the functional BiFeO_{3}(BFO)-type structure, which is a common metastable structure in widespread CTO-type perovskite oxides. It is found that the improper antiferroelectricity in CTO-type perovskite and ferroelectricity in BFO-type perovskite have distinct dependences on mechanical and electric boundary conditions, both of which involve oxygen octahedral rotation and tilt. The above difference can be used to stabilize the highly polar BFO-type structure in many CTO-type perovskite materials.

Dissolving salt is not equivalent to applying a pressure on water.

Salt water is ubiquitous, playing crucial roles in geological and physiological processes. Despite centuries of investigations, whether or not water's structure is drastically changed by dissolved ions is still debated. Based on density functional theory, we employ machine learning based molecular dynamics to model sodium chloride, potassium chloride, and sodium bromide solutions at different concentrations. The resulting reciprocal-space structure factors agree quantitatively with neutron diffraction data. Here we provide clear evidence that the ions in salt water do not distort the structure of water in the same way as neat water responds to elevated pressure. Rather, the computed structural changes are restricted to the ionic first solvation shells intruding into the hydrogen bond network, beyond which the oxygen radial-distribution function does not undergo major change relative to neat water. Our findings suggest that the widely cited pressure-like effect on the solvent in Hofmeister series ionic solutions should be carefully revisited.

Modeling Liquid Water by Climbing up Jacob's Ladder in Density Functional Theory Facilitated by Using Deep Neural Network Potentials.

Within the framework of Kohn-Sham density functional theory (DFT), the ability to provide good predictions of water properties by employing a strongly constrained and appropriately normed (SCAN) functional has been extensively demonstrated in recent years. Here, we further advance the modeling of water by building a more accurate model on the fourth rung of Jacob's ladder with the hybrid functional, SCAN0. In particular, we carry out both classical and Feynman path-integral molecular dynamics calculations of water with the SCAN0 functional and the isobaric-isothermal ensemble. To generate the equilibrated structure of water, a deep neural network potential is trained from the atomic potential energy surface based on ab initio data obtained from SCAN0 DFT calculations. For the electronic properties of water, a separate deep neural network potential is trained by using the Deep Wannier method based on the maximally localized Wannier functions of the equilibrated trajectory at the SCAN0 level. The structural, dynamic, and electric properties of water were analyzed. The hydrogen-bond structures, density, infrared spectra, diffusion coefficients, and dielectric constants of water, in the electronic ground state, are computed by using a large simulation box and long simulation time. For the properties involving electronic excitations, we apply the GW approximation within many-body perturbation theory to calculate the quasiparticle density of states and bandgap of water. Compared to the SCAN functional, mixing exact exchange mitigates the self-interaction error in the meta-generalized-gradient approximation and further softens liquid water toward the experimental direction. For most of the water properties, the SCAN0 functional shows a systematic improvement over the SCAN functional. However, some important discrepancies remain. The H-bond network predicted by the SCAN0 functional is still slightly overstructured compared to the experimental results.

Stabilization of Hydroxide Ions at the Interface of a Hydrophobic Monolayer on Water via Reduced Proton Transfer.

We report a joint study using surface-specific sum-frequency vibrational spectroscopy and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations, respectively, on a pristine hydrophobic (sub)monolayer hexane-water interface, namely, the hexane/water interface with varied vapor pressures of hexane and different pHs in water. We show clear evidence that hexane on water revises the interfacial water structure in a way that stabilizes the hypercoordinated solvation structure and slows down the migration of hydroxide ion (OH^{-}) relative to that in bulk water. This mechanism effectively attracts the OH^{-} to the water-hydrophobic interface with respect to its counterion. The result illustrates the striking difference of proton transfer of hydrated OH^{-} at the interface and in the bulk, which is responsible for the intrinsic charging effect at the hydrophobic interface.

Hydration of NH_{4}

Understanding the hydration and diffusion of ions in water at the molecular level is a topic of widespread importance. The ammonium ion (NH_{4}^{+}) is an exemplar system that has received attention for decades because of its complex hydration structure and relevance in industry. Here we report a study of the hydration and the rotational diffusion of NH_{4}^{+} in water using ab initio molecular dynamics simulations and quantum Monte Carlo calculations. We find that the hydration structure of NH_{4}^{+} features bifurcated hydrogen bonds, which leads to a rotational mechanism involving the simultaneous switching of a pair of bifurcated hydrogen bonds. The proposed hydration structure and rotational mechanism are supported by existing experimental measurements, and they also help to rationalize the measured fast rotation of NH_{4}^{+} in water. This study highlights how subtle changes in the electronic structure of hydrogen bonds impacts the hydration structure, which consequently affects the dynamics of ions and molecules in hydrogen bonded systems.

Enabling Large-Scale Condensed-Phase Hybrid Density Functional Theory Based Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics. 1. Theory, Algorithm, and Performance.

By including a fraction of exact exchange (EXX), hybrid functionals reduce the self-interaction error in semilocal density functional theory (DFT) and thereby furnish a more accurate and reliable description of the underlying electronic structure in systems throughout biology, chemistry, physics, and materials science. However, the high computational cost associated with the evaluation of all required EXX quantities has limited the applicability of hybrid DFT in the treatment of large molecules and complex condensed-phase materials. To overcome this limitation, we describe a linear-scaling approach that utilizes a local representation of the occupied orbitals (e.g., maximally localized Wannier functions (MLWFs)) to exploit the sparsity in the real-space evaluation of the quantum mechanical exchange interaction in finite-gap systems. In this work, we present a detailed description of the theoretical and algorithmic advances required to perform MLWF-based ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations of large-scale condensed-phase systems of interest at the hybrid DFT level. We focus our theoretical discussion on the integration of this approach into the framework of Car-Parrinello AIMD, and highlight the central role played by the MLWF-product potential (i.e., the solution of Poisson's equation for each corresponding MLWF-product density) in the evaluation of the EXX energy and wave function forces. We then provide a comprehensive description of the exx algorithm implemented in the open-source Quantum ESPRESSO program, which employs a hybrid MPI/OpenMP parallelization scheme to efficiently utilize the high-performance computing (HPC) resources available on current- and next-generation supercomputer architectures. This is followed by a critical assessment of the accuracy and parallel performance (e.g., strong and weak scaling) of this approach when AIMD simulations of liquid water are performed in the canonical (NVT) ensemble. With access to HPC resources, we demonstrate that exx enables hybrid DFT-based AIMD simulations of condensed-phase systems containing 500-1000 atoms (e.g., (H2O)256) with a wall time cost that is comparable to that of semilocal DFT. In doing so, exx takes us one step closer to routinely performing AIMD simulations of complex and large-scale condensed-phase systems for sufficiently long time scales at the hybrid DFT level of theory.

Aqueous solvation of the chloride ion revisited with density functional theory: impact of correlation and exchange approximations.

The specificity of aqueous halide solvation is fundamental to a wide range of bulk and interfacial phenomena spanning from biology to materials science. Halide polarizability is thought to drive the ion specificity, and if so, it is essential to have an accurate description of the electronic properties of halide ions in water. To this end, the solvation of the chloride anion, Cl- has been reinvestigated with state-of-the-art density functional theory. Specifically, the PBE-D3, PBE0-D3, and SCAN functionals have been employed to probe the impact of correlation and exchange approximations. Anticipating the findings, adding exact exchange improves the electronic structure, but simultaneously significantly reduces the Cl- polarizability, resulting in an over-structured Cl-O radial distribution function (RDF) and longer water H-bond lifetimes to Cl-. SCAN does not yield as much improvement in the energetics of Cl- relative to bulk water, but does result in a smaller reduction of the polarizability and thus a less structured Cl-O RDF, which agrees better with experiment. Special consideration is therefore warranted in assessing the impact of exchange on the energy, charge density, and the charge density response when designing and testing hybrid functionals for aqueous halide solvation.

Accessing the Accuracy of Density Functional Theory through Structure and Dynamics of the Water-Air Interface.

Density functional theory-based molecular dynamics simulations are increasingly being used for simulating aqueous interfaces. Nonetheless, the choice of the appropriate density functional, critically affecting the outcome of the simulation, has remained arbitrary. Here, we assess the performance of various exchange-correlation (XC) functionals, based on the metrics relevant to sum-frequency generation spectroscopy. The structure and dynamics of water at the water-air interface are governed by heterogeneous intermolecular interactions, thereby providing a critical benchmark for XC functionals. We find that the XC functionals constrained by exact functional conditions (revPBE and revPBE0) with the dispersion correction show excellent performance. The poor performance of the empirically optimized density functional (M06-L) indicates the importance of satisfying the exact functional condition. Understanding the performance of different XC functionals can aid in resolving the controversial interpretation of the interfacial water structure and direct the design of novel, improved XC functionals better suited to describing the heterogeneous interactions in condensed phases.

Importance of van der Waals effects on the hydration of metal ions from the Hofmeister series.

The van der Waals (vdW) interaction plays a crucial role in the description of liquid water. Based on ab initio molecular dynamics simulations, including the non-local and fully self-consistent density-dependent implementation of the Tkatchenko-Scheffler dispersion correction, we systematically studied the aqueous solutions of metal ions (K+, Na+, and Ca2+) from the Hofmeister series. Similar to liquid water, the vdW interactions strengthen the attractions among water molecules in the long-range, leading to the hydrogen bond networks softened in all the ion solutions. However, the degree that the hydration structure is revised by the vdW interactions is distinct for different ions, depending on the strength of short-range interactions between the hydrated ion and surrounding water molecules. Such revisions by the vdW interactions are important for the understanding of biological functionalities of ion channels.

Tuning the Néel Temperature of Hexagonal Ferrites by Structural Distortion.

To tune the magnetic properties of hexagonal ferrites, a family of magnetoelectric multiferroic materials, by atomic-scale structural engineering, we studied the effect of structural distortion on the magnetic ordering temperature (T_{N}) in these materials. Using the symmetry analysis, we show that unlike most antiferromagnetic rare-earth transition-metal perovskites, a larger structural distortion leads to a higher T_{N} in hexagonal ferrites and manganites, because the K_{3} structural distortion induces the three-dimensional magnetic ordering, which is forbidden in the undistorted structure by symmetry. We also revealed a near-linear relation between T_{N} and the tolerance factor and a power-law relation between T_{N} and the K_{3} distortion amplitude. Following the analysis, a record-high T_{N} (185 K) among hexagonal ferrites was predicted in hexagonal ScFeO_{3} and experimentally verified in epitaxially stabilized films. These results add to the paradigm of spin-lattice coupling in antiferromagnetic oxides and suggests further tunability of hexagonal ferrites if more lattice distortion can be achieved.

Electron-Hole Theory of the Effect of Quantum Nuclei on the X-Ray Absorption Spectra of Liquid Water.

Electron-hole excitation theory is used to unveil the role of nuclear quantum effects on the x-ray absorption spectral signatures of water, whose structure is computed via path-integral molecular dynamics with the MB-pol intermolecular potential model. Compared to spectra generated from the classically modeled water, quantum nuclei introduce important effects on the spectra in terms of both the energies and line shapes. Fluctuations due to delocalized protons influence the short-range ordering of the hydrogen bond network via changes in the intramolecular covalence, which broaden the preedge spectra. For intermediate-range and long-range ordering, quantum nuclei approach the neighboring oxygen atoms more closely than classical protons, promoting an "icelike" spectral feature with the intensities shifted from the main edge to the postedge. Computed spectra are in nearly quantitative agreement with the available experimental data.

Structural, electronic, and dynamical properties of liquid water by ab initio molecular dynamics based on SCAN functional within the canonical ensemble.

We perform ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulation of liquid water in the canonical ensemble at ambient conditions using the strongly constrained and appropriately normed (SCAN) meta-generalized-gradient approximation (GGA) functional approximation and carry out systematic comparisons with the results obtained from the GGA-level Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) functional and Tkatchenko-Scheffler van der Waals (vdW) dispersion correction inclusive PBE functional. We analyze various properties of liquid water including radial distribution functions, oxygen-oxygen-oxygen triplet angular distribution, tetrahedrality, hydrogen bonds, diffusion coefficients, ring statistics, density of states, band gaps, and dipole moments. We find that the SCAN functional is generally more accurate than the other two functionals for liquid water by not only capturing the intermediate-range vdW interactions but also mitigating the overly strong hydrogen bonds prescribed in PBE simulations. We also compare the results of SCAN-based AIMD simulations in the canonical and isothermal-isobaric ensembles. Our results suggest that SCAN provides a reliable description for most structural, electronic, and dynamical properties in liquid water.

Hydroxide diffuses slower than hydronium in water because its solvated structure inhibits correlated proton transfer.

Proton transfer via hydronium and hydroxide ions in water is ubiquitous. It underlies acid-base chemistry, certain enzyme reactions, and even infection by the flu. Despite two centuries of investigation, the mechanism underlying why hydroxide diffuses slower than hydronium in water is still not well understood. Herein, we employ state-of-the-art density-functional-theory-based molecular dynamics-with corrections for non-local van der Waals interactions, and self-interaction in the electronic ground state-to model water and hydrated water ions. At this level of theory, we show that structural diffusion of hydronium preserves the previously recognized concerted behaviour. However, by contrast, proton transfer via hydroxide is less temporally correlated, due to a stabilized hypercoordination solvation structure that discourages proton transfer. Specifically, the latter exhibits non-planar geometry, which agrees with neutron-scattering results. Asymmetry in the temporal correlation of proton transfer leads to hydroxide diffusing slower than hydronium.

Ab initio theory and modeling of water.

Water is of the utmost importance for life and technology. However, a genuinely predictive ab initio model of water has eluded scientists. We demonstrate that a fully ab initio approach, relying on the strongly constrained and appropriately normed (SCAN) density functional, provides such a description of water. SCAN accurately describes the balance among covalent bonds, hydrogen bonds, and van der Waals interactions that dictates the structure and dynamics of liquid water. Notably, SCAN captures the density difference between water and ice Ih at ambient conditions, as well as many important structural, electronic, and dynamic properties of liquid water. These successful predictions of the versatile SCAN functional open the gates to study complex processes in aqueous phase chemistry and the interactions of water with other materials in an efficient, accurate, and predictive, ab initio manner.

Borneol Attenuates Ultrasound-Targeted Microbubble Destruction-Induced Blood-Brain Barrier Opening in Focal Cerebral Ischemia.

Ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD) and the herb medicine borneol can both facilitate the delivery of therapeutic agents to diseased brain regions and serve as promising adjuvant neuroprotective therapies. Our preliminary experiments showed that UTMD could exacerbate ischemic blood-brain barrier (BBB) opening, while borneol can protect the BBB. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that the combination of UTMD and borneol could attenuate UTMD-induced injury to the BBB under ischemic stroke conditions. Male albino mice were subjected to 60-min middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) with reperfusion. Borneol and UTMD was given to mice 3 days before and 24 h after MCAO induction. BBB permeability, brain water contents, ultrastructural changes of the BBB and histopathological alterations were evaluated. Our data demonstrated that UTMD aggravated the leakage of Evans blue dye, ultrastructural alterations of cerebral microvasculature, brain edema, and even induced cerebral hemorrhage in ischemic stroke mice. Pretreatment with borneol significantly attenuated the above detrimental effects of UTMD on the BBB. This study indicates that under ischemic stroke conditions, the BBB becomes vulnerable to UTMD intervention, and the combination of borneol can help to maintain the integrity of the BBB.