0000000000335649
AUTHOR
Kota Usui
A new force field including charge directionality for TMAO in aqueous solution
We propose a new force field for trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), which is designed to reproduce the long-lived and highly directional hydrogen bond between the TMAO oxygen (OTMAO) atom and surrounding water molecules. Based on the data obtained by ab initio molecular dynamics simulations, we introduce three dummy sites around OTMAO to mimic the OTMAO lone pairs and we migrate the negative charge on the OTMAO to the dummy sites. The force field model developed here improves both structural and dynamical properties of aqueous TMAO solutions. Moreover, it reproduces the experimentally observed dependence of viscosity upon increasing TMAO concentration quantitatively. The simple procedure of the…
Dynamical heterogeneities of rotational motion in room temperature ionic liquids evidenced by molecular dynamics simulations
Room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) have been shown to exhibit spatial heterogeneity or structural heterogeneity in the sense that they form hydrophobic and ionic domains. Yet studies of the relationship between this structural heterogeneity and the ∼picosecond motion of the molecular constituents remain limited. In order to obtain insight into the time scales relevant to this structural heterogeneity, we perform molecular dynamics simulations of a series of RTILs. To investigate the relationship between the structures, i.e., the presence of hydrophobic and ionic domains, and the dynamics, we gradually increase the size of the hydrophobic part of the cation from ethylammonium nitrate (EA…
Ab Initio Liquid Water Dynamics in Aqueous TMAO Solution
Ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations in trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO)-D2O solution are employed to elucidate the effects of TMAO on the reorientational dynamics of D2O molecules. By decomposing the O-D groups of the D2O molecules into specific subensembles, we reveal that water reorientational dynamics are retarded considerably in the vicinity of the hydrophilic TMAO oxygen (O(TMAO)) atom, due to the O-D···O(TMAO) hydrogen-bond. We find that this reorientational motion is governed by two distinct mechanisms: The O-D group rotates (1) after breaking the O-D···O(TMAO) hydrogen-bond, or (2) together with the TMAO molecule while keeping this hydrogen-bond intact. While the orientatio…