Does Explicit Polarizability Improve Simulations of Phase Behavior of Ionic Liquids?

Solvation of Model Biomolecules in Choline-Aminoate Ionic Liquids: A Computational Simulation Using Polarizable Force Fields

One can foresee a very near future where ionic liquids will be used in applications such as biomolecular chemistry or medicine. The molecular details of their interaction with biological matter, however, are difficult to investigate due to the vast number of combinations of both the biological systems and the variety of possible liquids. Here, we provide a computational study aimed at understanding the interaction of a special class of biocompatible ionic liquids (choline-aminoate) with two model biological systems: an oligopeptide and an oligonucleotide. We employed molecular dynamics with a polarizable force field. Our results are in line with previous experimental and computational evidence on analogous systems and show how these biocompatible ionic liquids, in their pure form, act as gentle solvents for protein structures while simultaneously destabilizing DNA structure.

AMOEBA Polarizable Force Field for Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Glyme Solvents

Classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of electrolyte systems are important to gain insight into the atom-scale properties that determine the battery-relevant performance. The recent Tinker-HP software release enables efficient and accurate MD simulations with the AMOEBA polarizable force field. In this work, we developed a procedure to construct a universal AMOEBA model for the solvent family of glymes (glycol methyl ethers), which involves a refinement scheme for valence parameters by fitting the AMOEBA-derived atomic forces to those computed at the DFT level. The refined AMOEBA model provides a good description of both local and nonlocal properties in terms of the spectroscopic response of glyme molecules, as well as the liquid glyme density and dielectric constant. In addition, the complexation energies of alkali and alkaline-earth metal cations with tetraglyme molecules obtained from AMOEBA calculations are in good agreement with DFT results, demonstrating the suitability of the developed AMOEBA model for an accurate simulation of glyme-based battery electrolytes. We also expect the procedure to be transferable to the development of AMOEBA models for other battery electrolyte systems.

Predicting the Thermodynamics of Ionic Liquids: What to Expect from PC-SAFT and COSMO-RS?

Two popular thermodynamic modeling frameworks, namely, the PC-SAFT equation of state and the COSMO-RS model, are benchmarked for their performance in predicting the thermodynamic properties of pure ionic liquids (ILs) and the solubility of CO₂ in ILs. The ultimate goal is to provide an illustration of what to expect from these frameworks when applied to ILs in a purely predictive way with established parametrization approaches, since the literature generally lacks their mutual comparisons. Two different modeling approaches with respect to the description of the molecular structure of ILs are tested within both models: a cation-anion pair as (i) a single electroneutral supermolecule and (ii) a pair of separately modeled counterions (ion-based approach). In general, we illustrate that special attention should be paid when estimating unknown thermodynamic data of ILs even with these two progressive thermodynamic frameworks. For both PC-SAFT and COSMO-RS, the supermolecule approach generally yields better results for the vapor pressure and the vaporization enthalpy of pure ILs, while the ion-based approach is found to be more suitable for the solubility of CO₂. In spite of some shortcomings, COSMO-RS with the supermolecule approach shows the best overall predictive capabilities for the studied properties. The ion-based strategy within both models has significant limitations in the case of the vaporization properties of ILs. In COSMO-RS, these limitations can, to a certain extent, be surpassed by additional quantum mechanical calculations of the ion pairing in the gas phase, while the ion-based PC-SAFT approach still needs a sophisticated improvement to be developed. As an initiating point, we explore one possible and simple route considering a high degree of cross associations between the counterions in the gas phase.

Does Explicit Polarizability Improve Molecular Dynamics Predictions of Glass Transition Temperatures of Ionic Liquids?

Molecular dynamics simulations are used for predictions of the glass transition temperatures for a test set of five aprotic ionic liquids. Glass transitions are localized with the trend-shift method, analyzing volumetric and transport properties of bulk amorphous phases. A classical nonpolarizable all-atom OPLS force-field model developed by Canongia Lopes and Pádua (CL&P) is employed as a starting level of theory for all calculations. Alternative approaches of charge scaling and the Drude oscillator model, accounting for atomic polarizability either implicitly or explicitly, respectively, are used to investigate the sensitivity of the glass transition temperatures to induction effects. The former nonpolarizable model overestimates the glass transition temperature by tens of Kelvins (37 K on average). The charge-scaling technique yields a significant improvement, and the best estimations were achieved using polarizable simulations with the Drude model, which yielded an average deviation of 11 K. Although the volumetric data usually exhibit a lesser trend shift upon vitrification, their lower statistical uncertainty enables to predict the glass transition temperature with lower uncertainty than the ionic self-diffusivities, the temperature dependence of which is usually more scattered. Additional analyses of the simulated data were also performed, revealing that the Drude model predicts lower densities for most subcooled liquids but higher densities for the glasses than the original CL&P, and that the Drude model also invokes some longer-range organization of the subcooled liquid, greatly impacting the temperature trend of ionic self-diffusivities in the low-temperature region.

Polarization Switching Method for Effective Free Energy Calculation of Membrane Translocation on the Nano-scale

Free-energy calculations are crucial for investigating biomolecular interactions on the Nano-scale level. However, in theoretical studies, the neglect of electronic polarization can jeopardize their accuracy and correct predictive capabilities, specifically...