Molecular dynamics simulations of the amino acid-ZnO (10-10) interface: a comparison between density functional theory and density functional tight binding results.

We investigate the adsorption behavior of four different amino acids (glutamine, glutamate, serine, cysteine) on the zinc oxide (101̄0) surface, comparing the geometry and energy associated with a number of different adsorption configurations. In doing this, we highlight the benefits and limits of using density-functional tight-binding (DFTB) with respect to standard density functional theory (DFT). The DFTB method is found to reliably reproduce the DFT adsorption geometries. Analysis of the adsorption configurations emphasizes the fundamental role of the first hydration layer in mediating the interactions between the amino acids and the surface. Direct surface-molecule bonds are found to form predominantly via the carboxylate groups of the studied amino acids. No surface-mediated chemical reactions are observed, with the notable exception of a proton transfer from the thiol group of cysteine to a hydroxyl group of the surface hydration layer. The adsorption energies are found to be dominated both by the formation of direct or indirect surface-molecule hydrogen bonds, but also by the rearrangement of the hydrogen-bond network in surface proximity in a non-intuitive way. Energetic comparisons between DFTB and DFT are made difficult on one side by the long time necessary to achieve convergence of potential energy values in MD simulations and on the other side by the necessity of including higher-order corrections to DFTB to obtain a good description of the hydrogen bond energetics. Overall, our results suggest that DFTB is a good reference method to set the correct chemical states and the initial geometries of hybrid biomolecule/ZnO systems to be simulated with non-reactive force fields.

The role of water co-adsorption on the modification of ZnO nanowires using acetic acid.

Density functional theory (DFT) and Car-Parinello molecular dynamic simulations were employed to investigate the interaction of acetic acid with non-polar facets of ultra-thin ZnO nanowires. We consider both a dry and a water environment as well as different molecule coverages for the hydrated system. Our calculations reveal that the fully-covered nanowire is energetically favored in the aqueous environment at room temperature. We also identified a minor influence of liquid water on the denticity of the ligands for the fully modified system. However, a monodentate adsorption is expected for a half-covered nanowire due to strong ligand-water interactions.

Atomistic Simulations of the ZnO(12Ì 10)/Water Interface: A Comparison between First-Principles, Tight-Binding, and Empirical Methods.

We investigate the adsorption behavior of water over the zinc oxide (12̅10) surface starting from single molecules up to bulk liquid by means of atomistic molecular dynamics simulations. We compare results obtained with density-functional theory, density-functional tight binding, and a recently developed reactive force field. The methods perform comparably up to the level of a single monolayer of adsorbed water, predicting only small differences in adsorption energies and, as a consequence, adsorption geometries. These lie within the error bars of typical quantum mechanical calculations performed with different exchange-correlation functionals. However, the discrepancies among the methods have a dramatic effect on the dissociation equilibria and the structuring of liquid water layers in contact with the surface. Especially the different treatment of electrostatic interactions via self-consistent atomic point charges appears to heavily influence the simulation outcomes. Critical comparisons with experimental studies and possibly ad hoc reparametrizations of the semiempirical functionals may thus be necessary to study phenomena such as dissolution or biomolecular adsorption at ZnO surfaces within statistically relevant time and size scales.