Molecular dynamics simulation studies of 1,3-dimethyl imidazolium nitrate ionic liquid with water.

The fundamental understanding of intermolecular interactions of ionic liquids (ILs) with water is essential in predicting IL-water thermodynamic properties. In this study, intermolecular or noncovalent interactions were studied for 1,3-dimethyl imidazolium [DMIM]+ cation and nitrate [NO3]- anion with water, employing quantum mechanics and molecular dynamics simulations. Molecular dynamics simulations were performed using a revised multipolar polarizable force field. The effect of water on ionic liquids was evaluated in terms of thermodynamic and dynamic properties. Thermodynamic properties included liquid densities ρ, excess molar volumes ΔVE, and liquid structures gr. Dynamic properties included self-diffusion coefficients D of mixture constituents as a function of water concentration. The density of ionic liquid-water mixtures monotonically decrease with increasing concentration of water. A negative excess volume was obtained for low and high water concentrations, demonstrating strong intermolecular interactions of water with ionic liquid components. Liquid structures of ionic liquid-water mixtures revealed a tendency for anions to interact with cations at shorter intermolecular distances when the water concentration is increased. Diffusion rates were found to increase for all mixture components with increase in the fraction of water. A significant change in the diffusion rate was found at ∼0.3 weight fraction of water. However, the water self-diffusion coefficient was dominant at all concentrations. The ratio of water/anion and anion/cation self-diffusion coefficients was found to decrease linearly with increasing concentration of water molecules.

Development of a Polarizable Force Field for Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Lithium-Ion Battery Electrolytes: Sulfone-Based Solvents and Lithium Salts.

A many-body polarizable force field (PFF) was developed for molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of sulfone-based solvents and lithium salts. Development of the polarizable force field included parameterization of atomic polarizabilities, electrostatic interactions, and van der Waals interactions of electrolyte components. 1λ6-thiolane-1,1-dione or sulfolane (SLF) compound was selected as one of the most appropriate solvents for high-voltage battery electrolytes. Atomic polarizabilities for the sulfolane solvent and lithium salts were obtained by means of a combination of quantum mechanics (QM) and molecular mechanics (MM) approaches using the isotropic atomic dipole polarizable (IADP) model. High-quality atomic polarizabilities were refined for 10 atomic types. Intermolecular interactions of Li+ ions with SLF were parameterized to reproduce the binding energies at the MP2/aug-cc-pvDZ level of theory in the gas phase. Intermolecular interactions of Li+ ions with polyatomic anions, such as nitrate [NO3]-, tetrafluoroborate [BF4]-, perchlorate [ClO4]-, hexafluorophosphate [PF6]-, bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide [FSI]-, and bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide [TFSI]-, were parameterized employing a similar methodology. A series of molecular dynamics simulations was performed for sulfolane-based electrolytes at several different lithium salt concentrations. Thermodynamic, structural, and transport properties were evaluated to validate the force field parameters against available simulation and experimental data. Transport properties of sulfolane were significantly improved as compared with those obtained from MD simulations using a nonpolarizable force field (NFF). A newly developed polarizable potential was shown to reproduce Li+ ion dynamics as a function of salt concentration. Faster diffusion of Li+ ions, among other electrolyte components, was obtained for high salt concentration electrolytes.

Induced polarization restricts the conformational distribution of a light-harvesting molecular triad in the ground state.

The light-harvesting molecular triad consisting of carotenoid polyene (C), diaryl-porphyrin (P) and pyrrole-fullerene (C60) is a donor-acceptor molecule capable of absorbing incident light in the visible range. Its ability to convert solar energy to electrical excitation and charge separation energy suggests a great potential in real-world applications. The ensemble of its conformations under ambient conditions varies widely according to its electronic state. In previous work, we applied a non-polarizable model to study the conformational distribution of the molecular triad in the ground and charge separated states. However, due to the lack of polarization, which imparts subtle changes in the charge distribution on atoms, molecular simulations fail to produce accurate average dipole moments. We developed the first polarizable model for a molecular triad to investigate the structural and dynamic properties of a molecular triad in the ground state in an explicit organic solvent, tetrahydrofuran (THF). We performed first-principles electronic structure calculations of the individual components in the triad as well as THF and then fit the partial atomic charges to the electrostatic potential using the i-RESP methodology. We validated these force field parameters by comparing the thermodynamic and dynamic properties obtained from molecular dynamics simulations with those from experiments. We enhanced the sampling of the triad conformations with replica exchange molecular dynamics simulations. We characterized the effects of induced polarization on the structural stability of the triad by analyzing the free energy landscapes constructed with polarizable force fields. Furthermore, by using principal component analysis, we found that the molecular triad conformations adopted a small range of torsional angles with induced polarization. The triad conformation solvated in polar solvent with a polarizable force field qualitatively agrees with that obtained from nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Effects of the hydroxyl group on phenyl based ligand/ERRγ protein binding.

Bisphenol-A (4,4'-dihydroxy-2,2-diphenylpropane, BPA, or BPA-A) and its derivatives, when exposed to humans, may affect functions of multiple organs by specific binding to the human estrogen-related receptor γ (ERRγ). We carried out atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of three ligand compounds including BPA-A, 4-α-cumylphenol (BPA-C), and 2,2-diphenylpropane (BPA-D) binding to the ligand binding domain (LBD) of a human ERRγ to study the structures and energies associated with the binding. We used the implicit Molecular Mechanics/Poisson-Boltzmann Surface Area (MM/PBSA) method to estimate the free energies of binding for the phenyl based compound/ERRγ systems. The addition of hydroxyl groups to the aromatic ring had only a minor effect on binding structures and a significant effect on ligand/protein binding energy in an aqueous solution. Free binding energies of BPA-D to the ERRγ were found to be considerably less than those of BPA-A and BPA-C to the ERRγ. These results are well correlated with those from experiments where no binding affinities were determined in the BPA-D/ERRγ complex. No conformational change was observed for the helix 12 (H-12) of ERRγ upon binding of these compounds preserving an active transcriptional conformation state.

Development of AMOEBA force field for 1,3-dimethylimidazolium based ionic liquids.

The development of AMOEBA (a multipolar polarizable force field) for imidazolium based ionic liquids is presented. Our parametrization method follows the AMOEBA procedure and introduces the use of QM intermolecular total interactions as well as QM energy decomposition analysis (EDA) to fit individual interaction energy components. The distributed multipoles for the cation and anions have been derived using both the Gaussian distributed multipole analysis (GDMA) and Gaussian electrostatic model-distributed multipole (GEM-DM) methods.1 The intermolecular interactions of a 1,3-dimethylimidazolium [dmim(+)] cation with various anions, including fluoride [F(-)], chloride [Cl(-)], nitrate [NO(3)(-)], and tetraflorouborate [BF(4)(-)], were studied using quantum chemistry calculations at the MP2/6-311G(d,p) level of theory. Energy decomposition analysis was performed for each pair using the restricted variational space decomposition approach (RVS) at the HF/6-311G(d,p) level. The new force field was validated by running a series of molecular dynamic (MD) simulations and by analyzing thermodynamic and structural properties of these systems. A number of thermodynamic properties obtained from MD simulations were compared with available experimental data. The ionic liquid structure reproduced using the AMOEBA force field is also compared with the data from neutron diffraction experiment and other MD simulations. Employing GEM-DM force fields resulted in a good agreement on liquid densities ρ, enthalpies of vaporization ΔH(vap), and diffusion coefficients D(±) in comparison with conventional force fields.

GEM*: A Molecular Electronic Density-Based Force Field for Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

GEM*, a force field that combines Coulomb and Exchange terms calculated with Hermite Gaussians with the polarization, bonded, and modified van der Waals terms from AMOEBA is presented. GEM* is tested on an initial water model fitted at the same level as AMOEBA. The integrals required for the evaluation of the intermolecular Coulomb interactions are efficiently evaluated by means of reciprocal space methods. The GEM* water model is tested by comparing energies and forces for a series of water oligomers and MD simulations. Timings for GEM* compared to AMOEBA are presented and discussed.

Molecular dynamics simulation studies of the influence of imidazolium structure on the properties of imidazolium/azide ionic liquids.

Atomistic molecular dynamics simulations were performed on 1-butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium azide [bmim][N(3)], 1-butyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium azide [bmmim][N(3)], and 1-butynyl-3-methyl-imidazolium azide [bumim][N(3)] ionic liquids. The many-body polarizable APPLE&P force field was augmented with parameters for the azide anion and the bumim cation. Good agreement between the experimentally determined and simulated crystal structure of [bumim][N(3)] as well as the liquid-state density and ionic conductivity of [bmmim][N(3)] were found. Methylation of bmim (yielding bmmim) resulted in dramatic changes in ion structuring in the liquid and slowing of ion motion. Conversely, replacing the butyl group of bmim with the smaller 2-butynyl group resulted in an increase of ion dynamics.

Development of a Polarizable Force Field for Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Poly (Ethylene Oxide) in Aqueous Solution.

We have developed a quantum chemistry-based polarizable potential for poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) in aqueous solution based on the APPLE&P polarizable ether and the SWM4-DP polarizable water models. Ether-water interactions were parametrized to reproduce the binding energy of water with 1,2-dimethoxyethane (DME) determined from high-level quantum chemistry calculations. Simulations of DME-water and PEO-water solutions at room temperature using the new polarizable potentials yielded thermodynamic properties in good agreement with experimental results. The predicted miscibility of PEO and water as a function of the temperature was found to be strongly correlated with the predicted free energy of solvation of DME. The developed nonbonded force field parameters were found to be transferrable to poly(propylene oxide) (PPO), as confirmed by capturing, at least qualitatively, the miscibility of PPO in water as a function of the molecular weight.