Dissociation of Hydrogen Chloride and Proton Transfer in Liquid Glycerol: An Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics Study

Gas-Microjet Reactive Scattering: Collisions of HCl and DCl with Cool Salty Water

Liquid microjets provide a powerful means to investigate reactions of gases with salty water in vacuum while minimizing gas-vapor collisions. We use this technique to explore the fate of gaseous HCl and DCl molecules impinging on 8 molal LiCl and LiBr solutions at 238 K. The experiments reveal that HCl or DCl evaporate infrequently if they become thermally accommodated at the surface of either solution. In particular, we observe minimal thermal desorption of HCl following HCl collisions and no distinct evidence for rapid, interfacial DCl→HCl exchange following DCl collisions. These results imply that surface thermal motions are not generally strong enough to propel momentarily trapped HCl or DCl back into the gas phase before they ionize and disappear into solution. Instead, only HCl and DCl molecules that scatter directly from the surface escape entry. These recoiling molecules transfer less energy upon collision to LiBr/H2O than to LiCl/H2O, reflecting the heavier mass of Br(-) than of Cl(-) in the interfacial region.

Simulating the peptide folding kinetic related spectra based on the Markov State Model

Optical spectroscopic tools are used to monitor protein folding/unfolding dynamics after a fast triggering such as the laser induced temperature jump. These techniques provide new opportunities for comparison between theory and simulations and atom-level understanding protein folding mechanism. However, the direct comparison still face two main challenges: a gap between folding relevant timescales (microseconds or above) and length of molecular dynamics simulations (typically tens to hundreds of nanoseconds), and difficulty in directly calculating spectroscopic observables from simulation configurations. Markov State Model (MSM) approach is one of the most powerful means which can increase simulations timescale up to microsecond or even millisecond. We address progress on modeling infrared and fluorescence spectroscopic signals of temperature jump induced unfolding dynamics for a few small proteins. The harmoniousness between experiment and theoretical can both improve our understanding of protein folding mechanisms and provide direct validation of those theoretical models.

Molecular dynamics simulation study of glycerol-water liquid mixtures

To study the effects of water on conformational dynamics of polyalcohols, Molecular Dynamics simulations of glycerol-water liquid mixtures have been carried out at different concentrations: 42.9 and 60.0 wt % of glycerol, respectively. On the basis of the analysis of backbone conformer distributions, it is found that the surrounding water molecules have a large impact on the populations of the glycerol conformers. While the local structure of water in the liquid mixture is surprisingly close to that in pure liquid water, the behavior of glycerols can be divided into three different categories where roughly 25% of them occur in a structure similar to that in pure liquid of glycerol, ca. 25% of them exist as monomers, solvated by water, and the remaining 50% of glycerols in the mixture form H-bonded strings as remains of the glycerol H-bond network. The typical glycerol H-bond network still exists even at the lower concentration of 40 wt % of glycerol. The microheterogeneity of water-glycerol mixtures is analyzed using time-averaged distributions of the sizes of the water aggregates. At 40 wt % of glycerol, the cluster sizes from 3 to 10 water molecules are observed. The increase of glycerol content causes a depletion of clusters leading to smaller 3-5 molecule clusters domination. Translational diffusion coefficients have been calculated to study the dynamical behavior of both glycerol and water molecules. Rotational-reorientational motion is studied both in overall and in selected substructures on the basis of time correlation functions. Characteristic time scales for different motional modes are deduced on the basis of the calculated correlation times. The general conclusion is that the presence of water increases the overall mobility of glycerol, while glycerol slows the mobility of water.

Collisions of DCl with Pure and Salty Glycerol: Enhancement of Interfacial D → H Exchange by Dissolved NaI

The fate of DCl molecules striking pure glycerol and a 2.6 M NaI-glycerol solution is investigated using scattering, uptake, and residence time measurements. We find that dissolved Na+ and I- ions alter every gas-liquid pathway from the moment of contact of DCl with the surface to its eventual emergence as HCl. In particular, the salt enhances both trapping-desorption of DCl and interfacial DCl --> HCl exchange at the expense of DCl entry into the bulk solution. The reduced entry and enhanced desorption of thermalized DCl molecules are interpreted by assuming that Na+ and I- ions bind to interfacial OH groups and tie up surface sites that would otherwise capture incoming DCl molecules. These ion-glycerol interactions may also be responsible for enhancing interfacial D --> H exchange by disrupting the interfacial hydrogen bond network that carries the newly formed H+ ion away from its Cl- pair. This disruption may increase the fraction of interfacial Cl- and H+ that recombine and desorb immediately as HCl before the ions separate and diffuse deeply into the bulk.