Hydrogen-Bonding Structure and Dynamics of Aqueous Carbonate Species from Car−Parrinello Molecular Dynamics Simulations

The Structure of Carbon Dioxide at the Air-Water Interface and its Chemical Implications

The efficient reduction of CO2 into valuable products is a challenging task in an international context marked by the climate change crisis and the need to move away from fossil fuels. Recently, the use of water microdroplets has emerged as an interesting reaction media where many redox processes which do not occur in conventional solutions take place spontaneously. Indeed, several experimental studies in microdroplets have already been devoted to study the reduction of CO2 with promising results. The increased reactivity in microdroplets is thought to be linked to unique electrostatic solvation effects at the air-water interface. In the present work, we report a theoretical investigation on this issue for CO2 using first-principles molecular dynamics simulations. We show that CO2 is stabilized at the interface, where it can accumulate, and that compared to bulk water solution, its electron capture ability is larger. Our results suggest that reduction of CO2 might be easier in interface-rich systems such as water microdroplets, which is in line with early experimental data and indicate directions for future laboratory studies. The effect of other relevant factors which could play a role in CO2 reduction potential is discussed.

Agglomeration Drives the Reversed Fractionation of Aqueous Carbonate and Bicarbonate at the Air-Water Interface

In the course of our investigations of the adsorption of ions to the air-water interface, we previously reported the surprising result that doubly charged carbonate anions exhibit a stronger surface affinity than singly charged bicarbonate anions. In contrast to monovalent, weakly hydrated anions, which generally show enhanced concentrations in the interfacial region, multivalent (and strongly hydrated) anions are expected to show a much weaker surface propensity. In the present work, we use resonantly enhanced deep-UV second-harmonic generation spectroscopy to measure the Gibbs free energy of adsorption of both carbonate (CO32-) and bicarbonate (HCO3-) anions to the air-water interface. Contrasting the predictions of classical electrostatic theory and in support of our previous findings from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, we find that carbonate anions do indeed exhibit much stronger surface affinity than do the bicarbonate anions. Extensive computer simulations reveal that strong ion pairing of CO32- with the Na+ countercation in the interfacial region results in the formation of near-neutral agglomerate clusters, consistent with a theory of interfacial ion adsorption based on hydration free energy and capillary waves. Simulated X-ray photoelectron spectra predict a 1 eV shift in the carbonate spectra compared to that of bicarbonate, further confirming our experiments. These findings not only advance our fundamental understanding of ion adsorption chemistry but also impact important practical processes such as ocean acidification, sea-spray aerosol chemistry, and mammalian respiration physiology.

Adsorption of CO32-/HCO3- on a quartz surface: cluster formation, pH effects, and mechanistic aspects

Soluble inorganic carbon is an important component of a soil carbon pool, and its fate in soils, sediments, and underground water environments has great effects on many physiochemical and geological processes. However, the dynamical processes, behaviors and mechanism of their adsorption by soil active components, such as quartz, are still unclear. The aim of this work is to systematically address the anchoring mechanism of CO₃^2- and HCO₃^- on a quartz surface at different pH values. Three pH values (pH 7.5, pH 9.5 and pH 11) and three carbonate salt concentrations (0.07, 0.14 and 0.28 M) are considered, and molecular dynamics methods are used. The results indicate that the pH value regulates the adsorption behavior of CO₃^2- and HCO₃^- on the quartz surface by affecting the CO₃^2-/HCO₃^- ratio and the surface charge of quartz. In general, both HCO₃^- and CO₃^2- ions were able to adsorb on the quartz surface and the adsorption capacity of CO₃^2- is higher than that of HCO₃^-. HCO₃^- ions tended to uniformly distribute in an aqueous solution and contact the quartz surface in the form of single molecules instead of clusters. In contrast, CO₃^2- ions were mainly adsorbed as clusters which became larger as the concentration increased. Na⁺ ions were essential for the adsorption of HCO₃^- and CO₃^2-, because some of the Na⁺ and CO₃^2- ions spontaneously associated together to form clusters, promoting the clusters to be adsorbed on the quartz surface through cationic bridges. The local structures and dynamics trajectory of CO₃^2- and HCO₃^- showed that the anchoring mechanism of carbonate solvates on quartz involved H-bonds and cationic bridges, which changed in relation to the concentration and pH values. However, the HCO₃^- ions mainly adsorbed on the quartz surface via H-bonds while the CO₃^2- ions tended to be adsorbed through cationic bridges. These results may help in understanding the geochemical behavior of soil inorganic carbon and further the processes of the Earth's carbon chemical cycle.

Development and application of ReaxFF methodology for understanding the chemical dynamics of metal carbonates in aqueous solutions

A new ReaxFF reactive force field has been developed for metal carbonate systems including Na⁺, Ca²⁺, and Mg²⁺ cations and the CO₃^2- anion. This force field is fully transferable with previous ReaxFF water and water/electrolyte descriptions. The Me-O-C (Me = metal) three-body valence angle parameters and Me-C non-reactive parameters of the force field have been optimized against quantum mechanical calculations including equations of state, heats of formation, heats of reaction, angle distortions and vibrational frequencies. The new metal carbonate force field has been validated using molecular dynamics simulations to study the solvation and reactivity of metal and carbonate ions in water at 300 K and 700 K. The coordination radius and self-diffusion coefficient show good consistency with existing experimental and simulation results. The angular distribution analysis explains the structural preference of carbonate ions to form carbonates and bicarbonates, where Na⁺ predominantly forms carbonates due to weaker angular strain, while Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ prefer to form bicarbonate monodentate in nature. Residence time distribution analyses on different systems reveal the role of ions in accelerating and decelerating the dynamics of water and carbonate ions under different thermodynamic conditions. The formation and dissolution of bicarbonates and carbonates in solution were explored on the basis of the protonation capability in different systems. The nucleation phenomenon of metal carbonates at ambient and supercritical conditions is explained from the perspective of cluster formation over time: Ca²⁺ ions can form prenucleation clusters at ambient temperature but show saturation with increasing temperature, whereas Na⁺ and Mg²⁺ ions show a rapid increase in cluster size and amount upon increasing time and temperature.

Space-Resolved OH Vibrational Spectra of the Hydration Shell around CO2

The CO2 molecule is weakly bound in water. Here we analyze the influence of a dissolved CO2 molecule on the structure and OH vibrational spectra of the surrounding water. From the analysis of ab initio molecular dynamics simulations (BLYP-D3) we present static (structure, coordination, H-bonding, tetrahedrality) and dynamical (OH vibrational spectra) properties of the water molecules as a function of distance from the solute. We find a weakly oscillatory variation ("ABBA") in the 'solution minus bulk water' spectrum. The origin of these features can largely be traced back to solvent-solute hard-core interactions which lead to variations in density and tetrahedrality when moving from the solute's vicinity out to the bulk region. The high-frequency peak in the solute-affected spectra is specifically analyzed and found to originate from both water OH groups that fulfill the geometric H-bond criteria, and from those that do not (dangling ones). Effectively, neither is hydrogen-bonded.

Hydration and its Hydrogen Bonding State on a Protein Surface in the Crystalline State as Revealed by Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Protein hydration is crucial for the stability and molecular recognition of a protein. Water molecules form a hydration water network on a protein surface via hydrogen bonds. This study examined the hydration structure and hydrogen bonding state of a protein, staphylococcal nuclease, at various hydration levels in its crystalline state by all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Hydrophilic residues were more hydrated than hydrophobic residues. As the water content increases, both types of residues were uniformly more hydrated. The number of hydrogen bonds per single water asymptotically approaches 4, the same as bulk water. The distances and angles of hydrogen bonds in hydration water in the protein crystal were almost the same as those in the tetrahedral structure of bulk water regardless of the hydration level. The hydrogen bond structure of hydration water observed by MD simulations of the protein crystalline state was compared to the Hydrogen and Hydration Database for Biomolecule from experimental protein crystals.

Reactive force fields for aqueous and interfacial magnesium carbonate formation

We develop Mg/C/O/H ReaxFF parameter sets for two environments: an aqueous force field for magnesium ions in solution and an interfacial force field for minerals and mineral-water interfaces. Since magnesium is highly ionic, we choose to fix the magnesium charge and model its interaction with C/O/H through Coulomb, Lennard-Jones, and Buckingham potentials. We parameterize the forcefields against several crystal structures, including brucite, magnesite, magnesia, magnesium hydride, and magnesium carbide, as well as Mg²⁺ water binding energies for the aqueous forcefield. Then, we test the forcefield for other magnesium-containing crystals, solvent separated and contact ion-pairs and single-molecule/multilayer water adsorption energies on mineral surfaces. We also apply the forcefield to the forsterite-water and brucite-water interface that contains a bicarbonate ion. We observe that a long-range proton transfer mechanism deprotonates the bicarbonate ion to carbonate at the interface. Free energy calculations show that carbonate can attach to the magnesium surface with an energy barrier of about 0.22 eV, consistent with the free energy required for aqueous Mg-CO₃ ion pairing. Also, the diffusion constant of the hydroxide ions in the water layers formed on the forsterite surface are shown to be anisotropic and heterogeneous. These findings can help explain the experimentally observed fast nucleation and growth of magnesite at low temperature at the mineral-water-CO₂ interface in water-poor conditions.

Carbonation Reaction Mechanisms of Portlandite Predicted from Enhanced Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Geological carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is a promising technology for curbing the global warming crisis by reduction of the overall carbon footprint. Degradation of cement wellbore casings due to carbonation reactions in the underground CO2 storage environment is one of the central issues in assessing the long-term success of the CCS operations. However, the complexity of hydrated cement coupled with extreme subsurface environmental conditions makes it difficult to understand the carbonation reaction mechanisms leading to the loss of well integrity. In this work, we use biased ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations to explore the reactivity of supercritical CO2 with the basal and edge surfaces of a model hydrated cement phase—portlandite—in dry scCO2 and water-rich conditions. Our simulations show that in dry scCO2 conditions, the undercoordinated edge surfaces of portlandite experience a fast barrierless reaction with CO2, while the fully hydroxylated basal surfaces suppress the formation of carbonate ions, resulting in a higher reactivity barrier. We deduce that the rate-limiting step in scCO2 conditions is the formation of the surface carbonate barrier which controls the diffusion of CO2 through the layer. The presence of water hinders direct interaction of CO2 with portlandite as H2O molecules form well-structured surface layers. In the water-rich environment, CO2 undergoes a concerted reaction with H2O and surface hydroxyl groups to form bicarbonate complexes. We relate the variation of the free-energy barriers in the formation of the bicarbonate complexes to the structure of the water layer at the interface which is, in turn, dictated by the surface chemistry and the degree of nanoconfinement.

Solvation Shell of the Nitrite Ion in Water: An Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics Study

We performed ab initio molecular dynamics simulation of a nitrite ion in water to investigate the structural and dynamical properties of its hydration shell. The nitrite ion is found to exhibit strong asymmetry toward hydrogen bonding due to its two different types of hydrogen bond acceptor sites. This difference is better captured through further partitioning of the hydration shell into its proximal and distal regions. The frequency shifts of the stretch modes of hydration shell water reveal that the nitrogen site forms a stronger hydrogen bond than its oxygen sites with the latter forming hydrogen bonds, which are similar in strength to that between a pair of water molecules. The escape dynamics of water from the hydration shell is found to be rather slow, which seems to classify the nitrite ion as a structure-maker. However, the dynamics of orientational and hydrogen bond relaxation reveal a faster mobility of water molecules in the hydration shell than bulk water in spite of strong ion-water interactions. It is found that the nitrite ion can hold water molecules in its solvation shell and still make them rotate fast in its vicinity through switching of their hydrogen bonds between its nitrogen and oxygen acceptor sites. The dipole moment of the solute in water is also calculated in the present study.

Transport of hydrated nitrate and nitrite ions through graphene nanopores in aqueous medium

Nitrate ( NO 3 - ) and nitrite ( NO 2 - ) ions are naturally occurring inorganic ions that are part of the nitrogen cycle. High doses of these ions in drinking water impose a potential risk to public health. In this work, molecular dynamics simulations are carried out to study the passage of nitrate and nitrite ions from water through graphene nanosheets (GNS) with hydrogen-functionalized narrow pores in presence of an external electric field. The passage of ions through the pores is investigated through calculations of ion flux, and the results are analyzed through calculations of various structural and thermodynamic properties such as the density of ions and water, ion-water radial distribution functions, two-dimensional density distribution functions, and the potentials of mean force of the ions. Current simulations show that the nitrite ions can pass more in numbers than the nitrate ions in a given time through GNS hydrogen-functionalized pore of different geometry. It is found that the nitrite ions can permeate faster than the nitrate ions despite the former having higher hydration energy in the bulk. This can be explained in terms of the competition between the number density of the ions along the pore axis and the free energy barrier calculated from the potential of mean force. Also, an externally applied electric field is found to be important for faster permeation of the nitrite over the nitrate ions. The current study suggests that graphene nanosheets with carefully created pores can be effective in achieving selective passage of ions from aqueous solutions.

Predictive models for the phase behaviour and solution properties of weak electrolytes: nitric, sulphuric, and carbonic acids

The distribution of ionic species in electrolyte systems is important in many fields of science and engineering, ranging from the study of degradation mechanisms to the design of systems for electrochemical energy storage. Often, other phenomena closely related to ionic speciation, such as ion pairing, clustering and hydrogen bonding, which are difficult to investigate experimentally, are also of interest. Here, we develop an accurate molecular approach, accounting for reactions as well as association and ion pairing, to deliver a predictive framework that helps validate experiment and guides future modelling of speciation phenomena of weak electrolytes. We extend the SAFT-VRE Mie equation of state [D. K. Eriksen et al., Mol. Phys., 2016, 114, 2724-2749] to study aqueous solutions of nitric, sulphuric, and carbonic acids, considering complete and partially dissociated models. In order to incorporate the dissociation equilibria, correlations to experimental data for the relevant thermodynamic equilibrium constants of the dissociation reactions are taken from the literature and are imposed as a boundary condition in the calculations. The models for water, the hydronium ion, and carbon dioxide are treated as transferable and are taken from our previous work. We present new molecular models for nitric acid, and the nitrate, bisulfate, sulfate, and bicarbonate anions. The resulting framework is used to predict a range of phase behaviour and solution properties of the aqueous acids over wide ranges of concentration and temperature, including the degree of dissociation, as well as the activity coefficients of the ionic species, and the activity of water and osmotic coefficient, density, and vapour pressure of the solutions. The SAFT-VRE Mie models obtained in this manner provide a means of elucidating the mechanisms of association and ion pairing in the systems studied, complementing the experimental observations reported in the literature.

Ion Pairing and Multiple Ion Binding in Calcium Carbonate Solutions Based on a Polarizable AMOEBA Force Field and Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics

The speciation of calcium carbonate in water is important to the geochemistry of the world's oceans and has ignited significant debate regarding the mechanism by which nucleation occurs. Here, it is vital to be able to quantify the thermodynamics of ion pairing versus higher order association processes in order to distinguish between possible pathways. Given that it is experimentally challenging to quantify such species, here we determine the thermodynamics for ion pairing and multiple binding of calcium carbonate species using bias-enhanced molecular dynamics. In order to examine the uncertainties underlying these results, we derived a new polarizable force field for both calcium carbonate and bicarbonate in water based on the AMOEBA model to compare against our earlier rigid ion model, both of which are further benchmarked against ab initio molecular dynamics for the ion pair. Both force fields consistently indicate that the association of calcium carbonate ion pairs to form larger species is stable, though with an equilibrium constant that is lower than for ion pairing itself.

Dynamics of Water in the Solvation Shell of an Iodate Ion: A Born-Oppenheimer Molecular Dynamics Study

The iodate ion has an anisotropic structure and charge distribution. It has a pyramidal shape with the iodine atom located at the peak of the pyramid. The water molecules interact differently with the positively charged iodine and the negatively charged oxygen atoms of this anion, giving rise to two distinct solvation shells. In the present study, we have performed ab initio Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the dynamics of water molecules in the iodine and oxygen solvation shells of the iodate ion and compared the behavior with those of the bulk. The dynamics of water is calculated for both the BLYP and the dispersion-corrected BLYP-D3 functionals at room temperature. The dynamics of water in the solvation shells at higher temperatures of 353 and 330 K has also been investigated for the BLYP and BLYP-D3 functionals, respectively. The hydrogen bond dynamics, vibrational spectral diffusion, orientational and translational diffusion, and residence dynamics of water molecules in the two solvation shells are looked at in the current study. The ion-water hydrogen bond dynamics is found to be somewhat faster than that for water-water hydrogen bonds in the bulk, which can be attributed to a ring-like electron distribution on the iodate oxygens. The dynamical trends are connected to the water structure making/breaking properties of the positively charged iodine and negatively charged oxygen sites of the anion. Furthermore, orientational jumps of the iodate ion and also those of surrounding water molecules which are hydrogen bonded to the oxygen atoms of the iodate ion are also investigated. It is found that the nature of these orientational jumps can be different from those reported earlier for planar polyoxyanions such as the nitrate ion.

Reconsidering Calcium Dehydration as the Rate-Determining Step in Calcium Mineral Growth

The dehydration of cations is generally accepted as the rate-limiting step in many processes. Molecular dynamics (MD) can be used to investigate the dynamics of water molecules around cations, and two different methods exist to obtain trajectory-based water dehydration frequencies. Here, these two different post-processing methods (direct method versus survival function) have been implemented to obtain calcium dehydration frequencies from a series of trajectories obtained using a range of accepted force fields. None of the method combinations reproduced the commonly accepted experimental water exchange frequency of 10-8.2 s-1. Instead, our results suggest much faster water dynamics, comparable with more accurate ab initio MD simulations and with experimental values obtained using neutron scattering techniques. We obtained the best agreement using the survival function method to characterize the water dynamics, and we show that different method combinations significantly affect the outcome. Our work strongly suggests that the fast water exchange kinetics around the calcium ions is not rate-limiting for reactions involving dissolved/solvated calcium. Our results further suggest that, for alkali and most of the earth alkali metals, mechanistic rate laws for growth, dissolution, and adsorption, which are based on the principle of rate-limiting cation dehydration, need careful reconsideration.

Local initiation conditions for water autoionization

The pH of liquid water is determined by the infrequent process in which water molecules split into short-lived hydroxide and hydronium ions. This reaction is difficult to probe experimentally and challenging to simulate. One of the open questions is whether the local water structure around a slightly stretched OH bond is actually initiating the eventual breakage of this bond or whether this event is driven by a global ordering that involves many water molecules far away from the reaction center. Here, we investigated the self-ionization of water at room temperature by rare-event ab initio molecular dynamics and obtained autoionization rates and activation energies in good agreement with experiments. Based on the analysis of thousands of molecular trajectories, we identified a couple of local order parameters and show that if a bond stretch occurs when all these parameters are around their ideal range, the chance for the first dissociation step (double-proton jump) increases from [Formula: see text] to 0.4. Understanding these initiation triggers might ultimately allow the steering of chemical reactions.

Water dynamics in hydrated amorphous materials: a molecular dynamics study of the effects of dehydration in amorphous calcium carbonate

Amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) is often a critical transient phase in the formation of crystalline phases of CaCO₃via dehydration of hydrated ACC. The behavior of the water molecules plays a pivotal role in this transformation. We report here the dynamics of water molecules in ACC at hydration levels from CaCO₃·1H₂O to CaCO₃·0.25H₂O using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Due to the presence of highly hydrophilic Ca²⁺ and the strong H-bond acceptor CO₃^2-, most of the water molecules in our simulations have restricted translational and orientational dynamics. These are referred here as 'slow water'. However, a small fraction of them show high diffusivity at all hydration states and are referred here as 'fast water'. The computed diffusion coefficients of the slow waters, as extrapolated from simulation results, yield diffusion distances of the order of μm on the 1 hour time scale, consistent with rapid dehydration of ACC nano-particles in the laboratory. We correlate our fast waters with the water molecules in the percolating water-rich, Ca²⁺-deficient nano-pores in the structure of Goodwin et al. [Chem. Mater., 2010, 22, 3197], obtained by analysis of X-ray scattering data, and our slow waters with those in the Ca²⁺-rich volumes with less water in their model. The fast waters can be considered to be free rotors on the ns time scale and have orders of magnitude shorter rotational relaxation times than the slow waters.

Carbonate and carbonate anion radicals in aqueous solutions exist as CO3(H2O)62− and CO3(H2O)6˙− respectively: the crucial role of the inner hydration sphere of anions in explaining their properties

An effort to reproduce the physical properties of CO₃²⁻ and CO₃˙⁻ in water proves that one has to include an inner hydration sphere of six water molecules for both anions.

Solvation effects on the vibrational modes in hydrated bicarbonate clusters

Harmonic analysis and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations reveal the solvation effects on the vibrational modes of HCO₃⁻(H₂O)_n.

CO2 Hydration Shell Structure and Transformation

The hydration-shell of CO₂ is characterized using Raman multivariate curve resolution (Raman-MCR) spectroscopy combined with ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) vibrational density of states simulations, to validate our assignment of the experimentally observed high-frequency OH band to a weak hydrogen bond between water and CO₂. Our results reveal that while the hydration-shell of CO₂ is highly tetrahedral, it is also occasionally disrupted by the presence of entropically stabilized defects associated with the CO₂-water hydrogen bond. Moreover, we find that the hydration-shell of CO₂ undergoes a temperature-dependent structural transformation to a highly disordered (less tetrahedral) structure, reminiscent of the transformation that takes place at higher temperatures around much larger oily molecules. The biological significance of the CO₂ hydration shell structural transformation is suggested by the fact that it takes place near physiological temperatures.

Ab initio molecular dynamics study of Se(iv) species in aqueous environment

An ab initio molecular dynamics investigation is carried out on various water-borne Se(iv) species, H₂SeO₃, HSeO₃^- and SeO₃^2-, in aqueous environment. Consistent with the reported acid dissociation constants, in neutral solution H₂SeO₃ exchanges protons with the surrounding water molecules establishing a dynamic equilibrium with HSeO₃^-. The SeO₃^2- species is found to be stable only in basic environment, which is emulated in the present simulation through introducing a hydroxide ion, OH^-, in the system. The hydration structure, hydrogen bonding and spectroscopic signatures of the species are comprehensively analyzed. The influence of the solute's hydration structure on the structural and dynamic response of the solvent is discussed. The correlation between the strength as well as the number of hydrogen bonds accepted by the solute on its vibrational properties are analyzed.

Ab initio molecular dynamics study of H-bonding and proton transfer in the phosphoric acid-N,N-Dimethylformamide system

Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulations of phosphoric acid (H₃PO₄)-N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) mixtures over the whole composition range have been carried out. It has been found that the neutral molecules are the dominant species in this system. The concentration dependences of the average number of H-bonds per proton acceptor atom in P=O and C=O groups as well as per proton donor atom in DMFH⁺ ions towards phosphate species have been discussed. The H-bonding between components in all investigated mixtures of H₃PO₄ and DMF is possible. A significant fraction of the protonated DMF forms appears at phosphoric acid mole fraction higher than 0.37, indicating a high probability of proton transfer from phosphate species to oxygen atoms in C=O groups. The intermolecular proton transfer between phosphate species themselves is mainly observed when x_H3PO4 > 0.19. Satisfactory agreement with available experimental data for structural characteristics of the investigated system was obtained.

Reaction Mechanism for Direct Proton Transfer from Carbonic Acid to a Strong Base in Aqueous Solution I: Acid and Base Coordinate and Charge Dynamics

Protonation by carbonic acid H2CO3 of the strong base methylamine CH3NH2 in a neutral contact pair in aqueous solution is followed via Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulations. Proton transfer (PT) occurs to form an aqueous solvent-stabilized contact ion pair within 100 fs, a fast time scale associated with the compression of the acid-base hydrogen-bond (H-bond), a key reaction coordinate. This rapid barrierless PT is consistent with the carbonic acid-protonated base pKa difference that considerably favors the PT, and supports the view of intact carbonic acid as potentially important proton donor in assorted biological and environmental contexts. The charge redistribution within the H-bonded complex during PT supports a Mulliken picture of charge transfer from the nitrogen base to carbonic acid without altering the transferring hydrogen's charge from approximately midway between that of a hydrogen atom and that of a proton.

Ab initio molecular dynamics investigation of structural, dynamic and spectroscopic aspects of Se(vi) species in the aqueous environment

Microscopic investigation of selenic acid in aqueous environment is carried out. Hydrogen bonding and spectroscopic signatures of HSeO₄⁻and SeO₄²⁻species are discussed.

Examining the structural evolution of bicarbonate–water clusters: insights from photoelectron spectroscopy, basin-hopping structural search, and comparison with available IR spectral studies

Combining NIPES, theoretical calculations and available IR spectra allows us to identify the minimum energy structures that best fit the experiments.

Effect of Greenhouse Gases Dissolved in Seawater

A molecular dynamics simulation has been performed on the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane dissolved in a sodium chloride aqueous solution, as a simple model of seawater. A carbon dioxide molecule is also treated as a hydrogen carbonate ion. The structure, coordination number, diffusion coefficient, shear viscosity, specific heat, and thermal conductivity of the solutions have been discussed. The anomalous behaviors of these properties, especially the negative pressure dependence of thermal conductivity, have been observed in the higher-pressure region.

Ab Initio Studies of Calcium Carbonate Hydration

Ab initio simulations of large hydrated calcium carbonate clusters are challenging due to the existence of multiple local energy minima. Extensive conformational searches around hydrated calcium carbonate clusters (CaCO3·nH2O for n = 1-18) were performed to find low-energy hydration structures using an efficient combination of Monte Carlo searches, density-functional tight binding (DFTB+) method, and density-functional theory (DFT) at the B3LYP level, or Møller-Plesset perturbation theory at the MP2 level. This multilevel optimization yields several low-energy structures for hydrated calcium carbonate. Structural and energetics analysis of the hydration of these clusters revealed a first hydration shell composed of 12 water molecules. Bond-length and charge densities were also determined for different cluster sizes. The solvation of calcium carbonate in bulk water was investigated by placing the explicitly solvated CaCO3·nH2O clusters in a polarizable continuum model (PCM). The findings of this study provide new insights into the energetics and structure of hydrated calcium carbonate and contribute to the understanding of mechanisms where calcium carbonate formation or dissolution is of relevance.

Proton transport mechanism of imidazole, triazole and phosphoric acid mixtures from ab initio molecular dynamics simulations

We performed first principles molecular dynamics simulations to elucidate the mechanism and role of 1,2,3-triazole in proton transport while it is mixed with phosphoric acid (PA) and a phosphoric acid imidazole mixture. PA doped imidazole based polymer acts as an efficient polyelectrolyte membrane for fuel cells. The conductivity of this membrane increases when triazole is added to the system. For the first time we performed ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of complex mixtures of PA, imidazole and triazole. We have quantitatively estimated the structural diffusion and vehicular motion of protons. We found that upon the addition of triazole in PA and the PA imidazole mixture, the structural diffusion of protons increases significantly. The mechanism of proton transport is different when triazole is added to the mixture. We have also identified two different paths for structural diffusion (constructive and non-constructive) that contribute to long and short range proton transport.

Solvation of CO2 in water: effect of RuBP on CO2 concentration in bundle sheath of C4 plants

An understanding of the temperature-dependence of solubility of carbon dioxide (CO2) in water is important for many industrial processes. Voluminous work has been done by both quantum chemical methods and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations on the interaction between CO2 and water, but a quantitative evaluation of solubility remains elusive. In this work, we have approached the problem by considering quantum chemically calculated total energies and thermal energies, and incorporating the effects of mixing, hydrogen bonding, and phonon modes. An overall equation relating the calculated free energy and entropy of mixing with the gas-solution equilibrium constant has been derived. This equation has been iteratively solved to obtain the solubility as functions of temperature and dielectric constant. The calculated solubility versus temperature plot excellently matches the observed plot. Solubility has been shown to increase with dielectric constant, for example, by addition of electrolytes. We have also found that at the experimentally reported concentration of enzyme RuBP in bundle sheath cells of chloroplast in C4 green plants, the concentration of CO2 can effectively increase by as much as a factor of 7.1-38.5. This stands in agreement with the observed effective rise in concentration by as much as 10 times.

CO(2) incorporation in hydroxide and hydroperoxide containing water clusters--a unifying mechanism for hydrolysis and protolysis

The reactions of CO2 with anionic water clusters containing hydroxide, OH(-)(H2O)n, and hydroperoxide, HO2(-)(H2O)n, have been studied in the isolated state using a mass spectrometric technique. The OH(-)(H2O)n clusters were found to react faster for n = 2,3, while for n >3 the HO2(-)(H2O)n clusters are more reactive. Insights from quantum chemical calculations revealed a common mechanism in which the decisive bicarbonate-forming step starts from a pre-reaction complex where OH(-) and CO2 are separated by one water molecule. Proton transfer from the water molecule to OH(-) then effectively moves the hydroxide ion motif next to the CO2 molecule. A new covalent bond is formed between CO2 and the emerging OH(-) in concert with the proton transfer. For larger clusters, successive proton transfers from H2O molecules to neighbouring OH(-) are required to effectively bring about the formation of the pre-reaction complex, upon which bicarbonate formation is accomplished according to the concerted mechanism. In this manner, a general mechanism is suggested, also applicable to bulk water and thereby to CO2 uptake in oceans. Furthermore, this mechanism avoids the intermediate H2CO3 by combining the CO2 hydrolysis step and the protolysis step into one. The general mechanistic picture is consistent with low enthalpy barriers and that the limiting factors are largely of entropic nature.

Molecular dynamics simulations predict an accelerated dissociation of H2CO3 at the air–water interface

Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of carbonic acid (H₂CO₃) at the air–water interface yield a lower dissociation barrier than in bulk water.

Molecular mechanism of stabilization of thin films for improved water evaporation protection

All-atom molecular dynamics simulations and experimental characterization have been used to examine the structure and dynamics of novel evaporation-suppressing films where the addition of a water-soluble polymer to an ethylene glycol monooctadecyl ether monolayer leads to improved water evaporation resistance. Simulations and Langmuir trough experiments demonstrate the surface activity of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP). Subsequent MD simulations performed on the thin films supported by the PVP sublayer show that, at low surface pressures, the polymer tends to concentrate at the film/water interface. The simulated atomic concentration profiles, hydrogen bonding patterns, and mobility analyses of the water-polymer-monolayer interfaces reveal that the presence of PVP increases the atomic density near the monolayer film, improves the film stability, and reduces the mobility of interfacial waters. These observations explain the molecular basis of the improved efficacy of these monolayer/polymer systems for evaporation protection of water and can be used to guide future development of organic thin films for other applications.