The amorphous silica-liquid water interface studied by ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD): local organization in global disorder

The structural organization of water at a model of amorphous silica-liquid water interface is investigated by ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations at room temperature. The amorphous surface is constructed with isolated, H-bonded vicinal and geminal silanols. In the absence of water, the silanols have orientations that depend on the local surface topology (i.e. presence of concave and convex zones). However, in the presence of liquid water, only the strong inter-silanol H-bonds are maintained, whereas the weaker ones are replaced by H-bonds formed with interfacial water molecules. All silanols are found to act as H-bond donors to water. The vicinal silanols are simultaneously found to be H-bond acceptors from water. The geminal pairs are also characterized by the formation of water H-bonded rings, which could provide special pathways for proton transfer(s) at the interface. The first water layer above the surface is overall rather disordered, with three main domains of orientations of the water molecules. We discuss the similarities and differences in the structural organization of the interfacial water layer at the surface of the amorphous silica and at the surface of the crystalline (0 0 0 1) quartz surface.

Selective adsorption ofl-serine functional groups on the anatase TiO2(101) surface in benthic microbial fuel cells

In unmediated benthic microbial fuel cells, the titania anode surface as a promising candidate can have effective interactions with the carboxylic and hydroxyl groups of bacteria or pili.

MODELING OF INTERFACIAL BEHAVIOR OF WATER AND ORGANICS

Modeling of water structure at a surface of different adsorbents, as well as an influence of dissolved compounds or co-adsorbates on bound water, is of importance to understand the temperature dependence of the characteristics of bound water, especially at T < 273 K, in comparison with bulk water. 1 H NMR spectra giving useful information on the water structure can be obtained using different ways such as experimental measurements, direct ab initio and density functional theory (DFT) calculations or estimation using semiempirical calculations and appropriate calibration functions. Here, application of the last approach is analyzed with respect to a variety of relatively large hydrated systems. Despite the simplicity of this approach, it gives quantitative characterization of structural features of interfacial water and effects of different co-adsorbates and adsorbent surfaces on bound water.

DFT STUDY OF THE PROTONATION AND DEPROTONATION ENTHALPIES OF BENZOXAZOLE, 1,2-BENZISOXAZOLE AND 2,1-BENZISOXAZOLE AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE STRUCTURES AND ENERGIES OF THEIR ADDUCTS WITH EXPLICIT WATER MOLECULES

Benzoxazole, 1,2-benzisoxazole and 2,1-benzisoxazole are biologically active molecules with potential applications in drug design. Their interaction with aqueous medium in biological systems may be simulated by considering their interaction with explicit water molecules. Such studies provide information on the structures, energies and type of interactions stabilizing the resulting geometric systems. The objective of the current study was to utilize theoretical approaches to investigate the structures, stabilization energy and binding energy of benzoxazole–water, 1,2-benzisoxazole–water and 2,1-benzisoxazole–water complexes. The calculations were performed utilizing the density functional theory (DFT)/M06-2X/6-311 ++ G(d,p) method and the DFT/ωB97XD method with both the 6-311 ++ G(d,p) and the aug-cc-pVDZ basis sets. The results suggest that the stability of the different clusters depends on interrelated factors including the rings formed by intermolecular hydrogen bonds and the proton affinity (PA) or acidity of the atoms forming the intermolecular hydrogen bonds with the water molecules. A comparison across methods indicates that the results follow similar trends with different methods.

FIRST-PRINCIPLES STUDY OF Ti-CATALYZED HYDROGEN ADSORPTION ON LiB (001) SURFACE

Ti -doped LiB (001) is a promising material for hydrogen storage. The adsorption of H 2 is greatly enhanced by doping Ti into LiB (001), change the electronic structures of the surface Li , B atoms. After H 2 is adsorbed on the surface, the E ad of the ( H 2)n@ Ti / LiB (001) system is considered. It is around -0.22 eV/ H 2 to -0.31 eV/ H 2, which is close to the target specified by U.S. Department of Energy. The nature of the bonding between Ti and H 2 is due to the H 1s, Ti 4s and B 2s orbital hybridization. In addition, Ti 3d orbital is hybridized strongly with B -2p orbital, resulting in more stable Ti / LiB (001) system. These results are verified by the electron density distribution intuitively. It is found that the system can adsorb up to four H 2 at ambient temperature and pressure. Therefore, the Ti -doped LiB (001) would be a promising hydrogen storage material. Such optimal molecular hydrogen adsorption system makes H 2 adsorption feasible at ambient conditions, which is critical for practical applications.

MOLECULAR STRUCTURE, VIBRATIONAL ASSIGNMENTS, CONFORMATIONAL STABILITY, GROUND AND EXCITED STATE HYDROGEN-BONDING ANALYSIS OF 2-NITROSO VINYL AMINE

In the present work, a detailed conformational study is performed using several computational methods, including density functional theory (DFT) (B3LYP), MP2 and G2MP2 on 2-Nitroso vinyl amine (NVA) in order to determine the stability order of conformers and the various possibilities of intramolecular hydrogen bonding (HB) formation. Four conformers exhibit HB . This feature, although not being the dominant factor in energetic terms, appears to be of foremost importance to define the geometry of the molecule. According to our theoretical results, oximimine conformers are more stable than the corresponding nitrosoamine and nitrosoimine analogues. Theoretical calculations show the following order for intramolecular HB strength in the conformers of title compound: [Formula: see text]

The nature of intramolecular HB has been investigated by means of the Bader theory of atoms in molecules (AIM) and natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis. Also, Harmonic Oscillator Model of Aromaticity (HOMA) index as a geometrical indicator of a local aromaticity are investigated. The influence of the solvent on the stability order of conformers and the strength of intramolecular HB is considered using the Onsager reaction field model. The calculated highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energies confirm that charge transfer occur within the molecule. Further verification of the obtained transition state structures were implemented via intrinsic reaction coordinate (IRC) analysis. Calculations of the 1 H NMR chemical shift at GIAO/B3LYP/6–311++G** levels of theory are also presented. The excited-state properties of intramolecular HB in H -bonded systems have been investigated theoretically using the time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) method. The complete vibrational assignment for three H -bonded conformers has been made on the basis of the calculated potential energy distribution (PED).

SELF-CONSISTENT MEAN FIELD MODEL OF HYDROGEL AND ITS NUMERICAL SIMULATION

A model to describe the micro-structure of macromolecular microsphere composite (MMC) hydrogel is proposed in the framework of self-consistent mean field theory (SCMFT),1 which is usually used to investigate copolymer. Based on the SCMFT approximation, a system of equations associated with the complex topology of MMC hydrogel is derived and solved by a new kind of relaxation algorithm successfully. From the numerical simulation of the model, we find that the two model parameters play important roles in describing the micro-structure of MMC hydrogel, the interactions between two species (polymer chains and MMS spheres) and the volume fraction of MMS spheres. The role of other model parameters on the structure of the MMC hydrogel is also discussed. The numerical results are consistent with the observation from the chemical experiments. Moreover, we also show some new micro-structures obtained by using the SCMFT model, but discovered in chemical experiments.

DENSITY FUNCTIONAL THEORY STUDY OF H2O ADSORPTION AND DISSOCIATION ON Al (111) SURFACE

Comparative study about the adsorption and dissociation behaviors of H2O molecule on clean and vacancy defective Al (111) surface was conducted by extensive density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the interaction mechanisms between H2O molecule and Al (111) surface were also figured out. Geometry optimization results indicated that H2O molecule was apt to be adsorbed at top site on these two kinds of surfaces, whereas, the adsorption configurations, the adsorption type and inclination of H2O molecule planes away from the normal were different. The calculated adsorption energies demonstrated that the adsorption of H2O molecule occurred more readily on vacancy defective Al (111) surface. The electron density distribution indicated that the vacancy defect enhanced the interactions between H2O molecule and surface Al atoms. Further analysis of the density of states (DOS) showed that the vacancy defect increased the number of bonding electrons between H2O molecule and surface Al atoms. The detailed exploration of dissociation pathways demonstrated that the dissociation of H2O molecule on these two kinds of surfaces was a two-step process: (1) H2O → H + OH , (2) OH → H + O . However, for each step the dissociation pathway variations on vacancy defective Al (111) surface were different with those on clean Al (111) surface. Compared with the first step, the dissociation of hydroxyl group into O atom and H atom was kinetically difficult. The calculated lower activation energy barriers on vacancy defective Al (111) surface showed that the vacancy defect had catalytic effect for the dissociation of H2O molecule to some extent, especially for the first step.

A SELF-CONSISTENT-CHARGE DENSITY-FUNCTIONAL TIGHT-BINDING THEORY BASED MOLECULAR DYNAMICS SIMULATION OF A ZWITTERIONIC GLYCINE IN AN EXPLICIT WATER ENVIRONMENT

A zwitterionic glycine (zGLY) is adopted as an example to study the impact of water environment (310 H2O molecules) on the molecular structure and energetics using a self-consistent-charge density-functional tight-binding theory based molecular dynamics (SCC-DFTB/MD) method. It is found that maximal eight hydrogen bonds could be formed simultaneously between eight water molecules and the zGLY. The ability of the COO- terminal to adsorb water molecules is stronger than the [Formula: see text] terminal with respect to hydrogen bonding with more water molecules and exhibits lower adiabatic adsorption energies. The zGLY's intramolecular hydrogen bond appeared unpredictably, without involving any proton transfer and generally helpful for enhancing the system stability. Water molecules play an important role to stabilize the zwitterionic amino acids and restrain the proton migration from the [Formula: see text] to the COO− group. Our results show that the SCC-DFTB/MD method could successfully describe geometry dynamical evolutions and energetics of biomolecules in a nanoscale simulation with the presence of a large number of water molecules. Our study not only verified the feasibility of a QM level methodology for describing the aqueous states of biochemical molecules, but also gave a clear evidence for the impact of water environment on amino acids.