Toward Chemical Accuracy in the Description of Ion–Water Interactions through Many-Body Representations. I. Halide–Water Dimer Potential Energy Surfaces

Specific Ion Effects on Hydrogen-Bond Rearrangements in the Halide-Dihydrate Complexes

Small aqueous ionic clusters represent ideal systems to investigate the microscopic hydrogen-bonding structure and dynamics in ion hydration shells. In this context, halide-dihydrate complexes are the smallest systems where the interplay between halide-water and water-water interactions can be studied simultaneously. Here, quantum molecular dynamics simulations unravel specific ion effects on the temperature-dependent structural transition in X^-(H₂O)₂ complexes (X = Cl, Br, and I), which is induced by the breaking of the water-water hydrogen bond. A systematic analysis of the hydrogen-bonding rearrangements at low temperature provides fundamental insights into the competition between halide-water and water-water interactions depending on the properties of the halide ion. While the halide-water hydrogen-bond strength decreases going from Cl^-(H₂O)₂ to I^-(H₂O)₂, the opposite trend in observed in the strength of the water-water hydrogen-bond, suggesting that nontrivial many-body effects may also be at play in the hydration shells of halide ions in solution, especially in frustrated systems (e.g., interfaces) where the water molecules can have dangling OH bonds.

Improving the description of solvent pairwise interactions using local solute/solvent three-body functions. The case of halides and carboxylates in aqueous environment

We propose a general strategy to remediate force-field artifacts in describing pairwise interactions among similar molecules M in the vicinity of another chemical species, C, like water molecules interacting at short distance from a monoatomic ion. This strategy is based on introducing a three-body potential energy term that alters the pairwise interactions among M-type molecules when they lie at short range from the species C. In other words the species C is the center of a space domain where the pairwise interactions among the molecules M is altered. Here, we apply it to improve the description of the water interactions provided by the polarizable water model TCPE/2013 in the vicinity of halides, from F^- to At^- , and of the prototypical carboxylate anion CH₃ COO^- . We show the accuracy and the transferability of such an approach to investigate not only the hydration process of single anions but also of a salt solution NH 4 + / Cl - in aqueous phase. This strategy can be used to remediate the drawbacks of any kind of force fields. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Many-Body Effects Determine the Local Hydration Structure of Cs+ in Solution

A systematic analysis of the hydration structure of Cs⁺ ions in solution is derived from simulations carried out using a series of molecular models built upon a hierarchy of approximate representations of many-body effects in ion-water interactions. It is found that a pairwise-additive model, commonly used in biomolecular simulations, provides poor agreement with experimental X-ray spectra, indicating an incorrect description of the underlying hydration structure. Although the agreement with experiment improves in simulations with a polarizable model, the predicted hydration structure is found to lack the correct sequence of water shells. Progressive inclusion of explicit many-body effects in the representation of Cs⁺-water interactions as well as accounting for nuclear quantum effects is shown to be necessary for quantitatively reproducing the experimental X-ray spectra. Besides emphasizing the importance of many-body effects, these results suggest that molecular models rigorously derived from many-body expansions hold promise for realistic simulations of aqueous solutions.

Superprotonic conduction through one-dimensional ordered alkali metal ion chains in a lanthanide-organic framework

An ultrahigh proton conductivity of 2.91 × 10⁻² S cm⁻¹ and an ultralow activation energy of 0.10 eV were observed in an anionic lanthanide-organic framework. Both values approach the records for proton-conducting MOF materials.

Accurate Prediction of the Hydration Free Energies of 20 Salts through Adaptive Force Matching and the Proper Comparison with Experimental References

Simple pairwise potentials for five alkali ions and four halide ions were developed by only fitting to ab initio MP2 forces with the adaptive force matching (AFM) method. Without fitting to any experimental information, the AFM models predict the hydration free energies of all 10 fluoride and chloride salts formed by these ions within 1.5% of experimental references. The predicted hydration free energies for the 10 bromide and iodide salts are within 5-6% of experimental references with the larger error likely due to the neglect of explicit treatment of polarization and charge transfer. An inconsistency in the treatment of the gas phase entropy term between experimental and theoretical approaches is discussed. A new simplified hydration free energy for the ions is reported for use as a more appropriate experimental reference for further theoretical studies. The simulations show different dipole alignments for the hydration waters of cations and anions. While hydration waters of small cations tend to align their molecular dipole toward the ion, the dipole of one of the water OH bonds is aligned with the field of an anion.

Metal Ion Modeling Using Classical Mechanics

Metal ions play significant roles in numerous fields including chemistry, geochemistry, biochemistry, and materials science. With computational tools increasingly becoming important in chemical research, methods have emerged to effectively face the challenge of modeling metal ions in the gas, aqueous, and solid phases. Herein, we review both quantum and classical modeling strategies for metal ion-containing systems that have been developed over the past few decades. This Review focuses on classical metal ion modeling based on unpolarized models (including the nonbonded, bonded, cationic dummy atom, and combined models), polarizable models (e.g., the fluctuating charge, Drude oscillator, and the induced dipole models), the angular overlap model, and valence bond-based models. Quantum mechanical studies of metal ion-containing systems at the semiempirical, ab initio, and density functional levels of theory are reviewed as well with a particular focus on how these methods inform classical modeling efforts. Finally, conclusions and future prospects and directions are offered that will further enhance the classical modeling of metal ion-containing systems.

Signatures of Size-Dependent Structural Patterns in Hydrated Copper(I) Clusters, Cu+(H2O)n=1-10

The isomers of a hydrated Cu(I) ion with n = 1-10 water molecules were investigated by using ab initio quantum chemistry and an automated isomer-search algorithm. The electronic structure and vibrational spectra of the hundreds of resulting isomers were used to analyze the source of the observed bonding patterns. A structural evolution from dominantly two-coordinate structures (n = 1-4) toward a mixture of two- and three-coordinate structures was observed at n = 5-6, where the stability provided by expanded hydrogen-bonding was competitive with the dominantly electrostatic interaction between the water ligand and remaining binding sites of the metal ion. Further hydration (n = 7-10) led to a mixture of three- and four-coordinate structures. The metal ion was found, through spectroscopic signatures, to appreciably perturb the O-H bonds of even third-shell water molecules, which highlighted the ability of this nominally simple ion to partially activate the surrounding water network.

Getting the Right Answers for the Right Reasons: Toward Predictive Molecular Simulations of Water with Many-Body Potential Energy Functions

The central role played by water in fundamental processes relevant to different disciplines, including chemistry, physics, biology, materials science, geology, and climate research, cannot be overemphasized. It is thus not surprising that, since the pioneering work by Stillinger and Rahman, many theoretical and computational studies have attempted to develop a microscopic description of the unique properties of water under different thermodynamic conditions. Consequently, numerous molecular models based on either molecular mechanics or ab initio approaches have been proposed over the years. However, despite continued progress, the correct prediction of the properties of water from small gas-phase clusters to the liquid phase and ice through a single molecular model remains challenging. To large extent, this is due to the difficulties encountered in the accurate modeling of the underlying hydrogen-bond network in which both number and strength of the hydrogen bonds vary continuously as a result of a subtle interplay between energetic, entropic, and nuclear quantum effects. In the past decade, the development of efficient algorithms for correlated electronic structure calculations of small molecular complexes, accompanied by tremendous progress in the analytical representation of multidimensional potential energy surfaces, opened the doors to the design of highly accurate potential energy functions built upon rigorous representations of the many-body expansion (MBE) of the interaction energies. This Account provides a critical overview of the performance of the MB-pol many-body potential energy function through a systematic analysis of energetic, structural, thermodynamic, and dynamical properties as well as of vibrational spectra of water from the gas to the condensed phase. It is shown that MB-pol achieves unprecedented accuracy across all phases of water through a quantitative description of each individual term of the MBE, with a physically correct representation of both short- and long-range many-body contributions. Comparisons with experimental data probing different regions of the water potential energy surface from clusters to bulk demonstrate that MB-pol represents a major step toward the long-sought-after "universal model" capable of accurately describing the molecular properties of water under different conditions and in different environments. Along this path, future challenges include the extension of the many-body scheme adopted by MB-pol to the description of generic solutes as well as the integration of MB-pol in an efficient theoretical and computational framework to model acid-base reactions in aqueous environments. In this context, given the nontraditional form of the MB-pol energy and force expressions, synergistic efforts by theoretical/computational chemists/physicists and computer scientists will be critical for the development of high-performance software for many-body molecular dynamics simulations.

Modeling Molecular Interactions in Water: From Pairwise to Many-Body Potential Energy Functions

Almost 50 years have passed from the first computer simulations of water, and a large number of molecular models have been proposed since then to elucidate the unique behavior of water across different phases. In this article, we review the recent progress in the development of analytical potential energy functions that aim at correctly representing many-body effects. Starting from the many-body expansion of the interaction energy, specific focus is on different classes of potential energy functions built upon a hierarchy of approximations and on their ability to accurately reproduce reference data obtained from state-of-the-art electronic structure calculations and experimental measurements. We show that most recent potential energy functions, which include explicit short-range representations of two-body and three-body effects along with a physically correct description of many-body effects at all distances, predict the properties of water from the gas to the condensed phase with unprecedented accuracy, thus opening the door to the long-sought "universal model" capable of describing the behavior of water under different conditions and in different environments.

The i-TTM model for ab initio-based ion–water interaction potentials. II. Alkali metal ion–water potential energy functions

A new set of i-TTM potential energy functions describing the interactions between alkali metal ions and water molecules is reported.