Block copolymer templated self-assembly of disk-shaped molecules.

Stacking of disk-shaped organic molecules is a promising strategy to develop electronic and photovoltaic devices. Here, we investigate the capability of a soft block copolymer matrix that microphase separates into a cylindrical phase to direct the self-assembly of disk-shaped molecules by means of molecular simulations. We show that two disk molecules confined in the cylinder domain experience a depletion force, induced by the polymer chains, which results in the formation of stacks of disks. This entropic interaction and the soft confinement provided by the matrix are both responsible for the structures that can be self-assembled, which include slanted or columnar stacks. In addition, we evidence the transmission of stresses between the different minority domains of the microphase, which results in the establishment of a long-ranged interaction between disk molecules embedded in different domains; this interaction is of the order of the microphase periodicity and may be exploited to direct assembly of disks at larger scales.

Consensus on the solubility of NaCl in water from computer simulations using the chemical potential route.

The solubility of NaCl in water is evaluated by using three force field models: Joung-Cheatham for NaCl dissolved in two different water models (SPC/E and TIP4P/2005) and Smith Dang NaCl model in SPC/E water. The methodology based on free-energy calculations [E. Sanz and C. Vega, J. Chem. Phys. 126, 014507 (2007)] and [J. L. Aragones et al., J. Chem. Phys. 136, 244508 (2012)] has been used, except, that all calculations for the NaCl in solution were obtained by using molecular dynamics simulations with the GROMACS package instead of homemade MC programs. We have explored new lower molalities and made longer runs to improve the accuracy of the calculations. Exploring the low molality region allowed us to obtain an analytical expression for the chemical potential of the ions in solution as a function of molality valid for a wider range of molalities, including the infinite dilute case. These new results are in better agreement with recent estimations of the solubility obtained with other methodologies. Besides, two empirical simple rules have been obtained to have a rough estimate of the solubility of a certain model, by analyzing the ionic pairs formation as a function of molality and/or by calculating the difference between the NaCl solid chemical potential and the standard chemical potential of the salt in solution.

Elasticity-induced force reversal between active spinning particles in dense passive media.

The self-organization of active particles is governed by their dynamic effective interactions. Such interactions are controlled by the medium in which such active agents reside. Here we study the interactions between active agents in a dense non-active medium. Our system consists of actuated, spinning, active particles embedded in a dense monolayer of passive, or non-active, particles. We demonstrate that the presence of the passive monolayer alters markedly the properties of the system and results in a reversal of the forces between active spinning particles from repulsive to attractive. The origin of such reversal is due to the coupling between the active stresses and elasticity of the system. This discovery provides a mechanism for the interaction between active agents in complex and structured media, opening up opportunities to tune the interaction range and directionality via the mechanical properties of the medium.

Free energy calculations for molecular solids using GROMACS.

In this work, we describe a procedure to evaluate the free energy of molecular solids with the GROMACS molecular dynamics package. The free energy is calculated using the Einstein molecule method that can be regarded as a small modification of the Einstein crystal method. Here, the position and orientation of the molecules is fixed by using an Einstein field that binds with harmonic springs at least three non-collinear atoms (or points of the molecule) to their reference positions. The validity of the Einstein field is tested by performing free-energy calculations of methanol, water (ice), and patchy colloids molecular solids. The free energies calculated with GROMACS show a very good agreement with those obtained using Monte Carlo and with previously published results.

Calculation of the melting point of alkali halides by means of computer simulations.

In this paper, we study the liquid-solid coexistence of NaCl-type alkali halides, described by interaction potentials such as Tosi-Fumi (TF), Smith-Dang (SD), and Joung-Cheatham (JC), and compute their melting temperature (T(m)) at 1 bar via three independent routes: (1) liquid/solid direct coexistence, (2) free-energy calculations, and (3) Hamiltonian Gibbs-Duhem integration. The melting points obtained by the three routes are consistent with each other. The calculated T(m) of the Tosi-Fumi model of NaCl is in good agreement with the experimental value as well as with other numerical calculations. However, the other two models considered for NaCl, SD and JC, overestimate the melting temperature of NaCl by more than 200 K. We have also computed the melting temperature of other alkali halides using the Tosi-Fumi interaction potential and observed that the predictions are not always as close to the experimental values as they are for NaCl. It seems that there is still room for improvement in the area of force-fields for alkaline halides, given that so far most models are still unable to describe a simple yet important property such as the melting point.

Solubility of NaCl in water by molecular simulation revisited.

In this paper, the solubility of NaCl in water is evaluated by using computer simulations for three different force fields. The condition of chemical equilibrium (i.e., equal chemical potential of the salt in the solid and in the solution) is obtained at room temperature and pressure to determine the solubility of the salt. We used the same methodology that was described in our previous work [E. Sanz and C. Vega, J. Chem. Phys. 126, 014507 (2007)] although several modifications were introduced to improve the accuracy of the calculations. It is found that the predictions of the solubility are quite sensitive to the details of the force field used. Certain force fields underestimate the experimental solubility of NaCl in water by a factor of four, whereas the predictions of other force fields are within 20% of the experimental value. Direct coexistence molecular dynamic simulations were also performed to determine the solubility of the salt. Reasonable agreement was found between the solubility obtained from free energy calculations and that obtained from direct coexistence simulations. This work shows that the evaluation of the solubility of salts in water can now be performed in computer simulations. The solubility depends on the ion-ion, ion-water, and water-water interactions. For this reason, the prediction of the solubility can be quite useful in future work to develop force fields for ions in water.

Phase diagram of water under an applied electric field.

Simulations are used to investigate for the first time the anisotropy of the dielectric response and the effects of an applied electric field E(ex) on the phase diagram of water. In the presence of electric fields ice II disappears from the phase diagram. When E(ex) is applied in the direction perpendicular to the ac crystallographic plane the melting temperatures of ices III and V increase whereas that of ice Ih is hardly affected. Ice III also disappears as a stable phase when E(ex) is applied in the direction perpendicular to the ab plane. E(ex) increases by a small amount the critical temperature and reduces slightly the temperature of the maximum density of liquid water. The presence E(ex) modifies all phase transitions of water but its effect on solid-solid and solid-fluid transitions seems to be more important and different depending on the direction of E(ex).

Dielectric constant of ices and water: a lesson about water interactions.

In this paper, the dielectric constant has been evaluated for ices Ih, III, V, VI, and VII for several water models using two different methodologies. Using Monte Carlo simulations, with special moves to sample proton-disordered configurations, the dielectric constant has been rigorously evaluated. We also used an approximate route in which proton-disordered configurations satisfying the Bernal-Fowler rules were generated following the algorithm proposed by Buch et al. (Buch, V.; Sandler, P.; Sadlej, J. J. Phys. Chem. B 1998, 102, 8641), and the dielectric constant was estimated assuming that all configurations have the same statistical weight (as Pauling did when estimating the residual entropy of ice). The predictions of the Pauling model for the dielectric constant differ in general from those obtained rigorously by computer simulations because proton-disordered configurations satisfying the Bernal-Fowler rules can differ in their energies by as much as 0.10-0.30 NkT (at 243 K). These differences in energy significantly affect properties that vary from one configuration to another such as polarization, leading to different values of the dielectric constant. The Pauling predictions differ from the simulation results, especially for SPC/E and TIP5P, but yield reasonable results for TIP4P-like models. We suggest that for three charge models the polarization factor (G) in condensed phases depends on the ratio of the dipole to the quadrupole moment. The SPC/E, TIP5P, TIP4P, TIP4P/2005, TIP4P/ice models of water are unable to describe simultaneously both the experimental dielectric constants of water and ice Ih. Nonpolarizable models cannot describe the dielectric constants of the different condensed phases of water because their dipole moments (about 2.3 D) are much smaller that those estimated from first principles (of the order of 3 D). However, the predictions of TIP4P models provide an overall qualititatively correct description of the dielectric constant of the condensed phases of water, when the dipole moment of the model is scaled to the estimated value obtained from first principle calculations. Such scaling fails completely for SPC/E, TIP3P, and TIP5P as these models predict a completely different dielectric constant for ice Ih and water at the melting point, in complete disagreement with experiment. The dielectric constant of ices, as the phase diagram predictions, seems to contain interesting information about the orientational dependence of water interactions.

Plastic crystal phases of simple water models.

We report the appearance of two plastic crystal phases of water at high pressure and temperature using computer simulations. In one of them the oxygen atoms form a body centered cubic structure (bcc) and in the other they form a face centered cubic structure (fcc). In both cases the water molecules were able to rotate almost freely. We have found that the bcc plastic crystal transformed into a fcc plastic crystal via a Martensitic phase transition when heated at constant pressure. We have performed the characterization and localization in the phase diagram of these plastic crystal phases for the SPC/E, TIP4P, and TIP4P/2005 water potential models. For TIP4P/2005 model free energy calculations were carried out for the bcc plastic crystal and fcc plastic crystal using a new method (which is a slight variation of the Einstein crystal method) proposed for these types of solid. The initial coexistence points for the SPC/E and TIP4P models were obtained using Hamiltonian Gibbs-Duhem integration. For all of these models these two plastic crystal phases appear in the high pressure and temperature region of the phase diagram. It would be of interest to study if such plastic crystal phases do indeed exist for real water. This would shed some light on the question of whether these models can describe satisfactorily the high pressure part of the phase diagram of water, and if not, where and why they fail.

The phase diagram of water at high pressures as obtained by computer simulations of the TIP4P/2005 model: the appearance of a plastic crystal phase.

In this work the high pressure region of the phase diagram of water has been studied by computer simulation by using the TIP4P/2005 model of water. Free energy calculations were performed for ices VII and VIII and for the fluid phase to determine the melting curve of these ices. In addition, molecular dynamics simulations were performed at high temperatures (440 K) observing the spontaneous freezing of the liquid into a solid phase at pressures of about 80,000 bar. The analysis of the structure obtained lead to the conclusion that a plastic crystal phase was formed. In the plastic crystal phase the oxygen atoms were arranged forming a body center cubic structure, as in ice VII, but the water molecules were able to rotate almost freely. Free energy calculations were performed for this new phase, and it was found that for TIP4P/2005 this plastic crystal phase is thermodynamically stable with respect to ices VII and VIII for temperatures higher than about 400 K, although the precise value depends on the pressure. By using Gibbs-Duhem simulations, all coexistence lines were determined, and the phase diagram of the TIP4P/2005 model was obtained, including ices VIII and VII and the new plastic crystal phase. The TIP4P/2005 model is able to describe qualitatively the phase diagram of water. It would be of interest to study if such a plastic crystal phase does indeed exist for real water. The nearly spherical shape of water makes possible the formation of a plastic crystal phase at high temperatures. The formation of a plastic crystal phase at high temperatures (with a bcc arrangements of oxygen atoms) is fast from a kinetic point of view occurring in about 2 ns. This is in contrast to the nucleation of ice Ih which requires simulations of the order of hundreds of ns.

What ice can teach us about water interactions: a critical comparison of the performance of different water models.

The performance of several popular water models (TIP3P, TIP4P, TIP5P and TIP4P/2005) is analyzed. For that purpose the predictions for ten different properties of water are investigated, namely: 1. vapour-liquid equilibria (VLE) and critical temperature; 2. surface tension; 3. densities of the different solid structures of water (ices); 4. phase diagram; 5. melting-point properties; 6. maximum in the density of water at room pressure and thermal coefficients alpha and KT; 7. structure of liquid water and ice; 8. equation of state at high pressures; 9. self-diffusion coefficient; 10. dielectric constant. For each property, the performance of each model is analyzed in detail with a critical discussion of the possible reason of the success or failure of the model. A final judgement on the quality of these models is provided. TIP4P/2005 provides the best description of almost all properties of the list, the only exception being the dielectric constant. In second position, TIP5P and TIP4P yield a similar performance overall, and the last place with the poorest description of the water properties is provided by TIP3P. The ideas leading to the proposal and design of the TIP4P/2005 are also discussed in detail. TIP4P/2005 is probably close to the best description of water that can be achieved with a non-polarizable model described by a single Lennard-Jones (LJ) site and three charges.

Properties of ices at 0 K: a test of water models.

The properties of ices Ih, II, III, V, and VI at zero temperature and pressure are determined by computer simulation for several rigid water models (SPC/E, TIP5P, TIP4P/Ice, and TIP4P/2005). The energies of the different ices at zero temperature and pressure (relative to the ice II energy) are compared to the experimental results of Whalley [J. Chem. Phys. 81, 4087 (1984)]. TIP4P/Ice and TIP4P/2005 provide a qualitatively correct description of the relative energies of the ices at these conditions. In fact, only these two models provide the correct ordering in energies. For the SPC/E and TIP5P models, ice II is the most stable phase at zero temperature and pressure whereas for TIP4P/Ice and TIP4P/2005 ice Ih is the most stable polymorph. These results are in agreement with the relative stabilities found at higher temperatures. The solid-solid phase transitions at 0 K are determined. The predicted pressures are in good agreement with those obtained from free energy calculations.