Rotational dynamics in a simulated supercooled network-forming liquid

Constant temperature and constant pressure molecular dynamics calculations have been performed on the extended simple point charge (SPC/E) model water to understand the effects of pressure on its structural and dynamical properties. The effect of pressure is to increase the presence of interstitial water molecules, which is shown to be responsible for the experimentally observed increase in the first x-ray diffraction peak and a broadening of the OOO∧ bond angle distribution. These structural changes lead to weaker hydrogen bonding and the observed minimum in the rotational correlation time as a function of pressure. The weak maximum in the measured translational diffusion coefficient at around 1.5 kbar was not reproduced. The temperature of the density maximum was estimated to occur at 245±4 K, which suggests that structural changes with increasing pressure and decreasing temperature are not quantitatively reproduced by the SPC/E model.

We investigate the properties of geometrically modified water models by performing molecular dynamics simulations of perturbations of the extended simple point charge (SPC/E) model of water over a wide range of temperatures at 1 bar. The geometric modification consists of altering the H-O-H angle in SPC/E. The dipole moment is held constant by altering the O-H bond length, while the electrostatic charges are left unchanged. We find that a H-O-H angle of at least 100 degrees is necessary for the appearance of density anomalies and of solubility extrema with respect to temperature for small apolar solutes. We observe the occurrence of two incompatible types of structural order in these models: Tetrahedral, with waterlike translational order for bent models with H-O-H angles in excess of 100 degrees ; and linear, with Lennard-Jones-like orientationally averaged translational order for smaller H-O-H angles. Increasing the H-O-H angle causes the density to increase, while at the same time shifting waterlike anomalies to progressively higher temperatures. For bent models with H-O-H angle greater than SPC/E's, we observe arrest of translational motion at 300 K (115 degrees) and 330 K (120 degrees).

In our previous study [Plankova et al., EPJWeb. Conf. 92 , 02071 (2015)], several molecular simulations of vapor-liquid phase interfaces for pure water were performed using the DL_POLY Classic software. The TIP4P/2005 molecular model was successfully used for the modeling of the density profile and the thickness of phase interfaces together with the temperature dependence of the surface tension. In the current study, the extended simple point charge (SPC/E) model for water was employed for the investigation of vapor-liquid phase interfaces over a wide temperature range from 250 K to 600 K. The TIP4P/2005 model was also used with the temperature step of 25 K to obtain more consistent data compared to our previous study. Results of the new simulations are in a good agreement with most of the literature data. TIP4P/2005 provides better results for the saturated liquid density with its maximum close to 275 K, while SPC/E predicts slightly better saturated vapor density. Both models give qualitatively correct representation for the surface tension of water. The maximum absolute deviation from the IAPWS standard for the surface tension of ordinary water is 10.4 mN · m−1 and 4.1 mN · m−1 over the temperature range from 275 K to 600 K in case of SPC/E and TIP4P/2005, respectively.

Path integral molecular dynamics (PIMD) simulations of the extended simple point charge (SPC/E) model of liquid water (both H2O and D2O) have been performed in order to find the temperature at which the maximum liquid density is obtained. For comparison, purely classical SPC and SPC/E water have also been simulated over long periods (more than 200 ps). Structural properties and various temperature dependent quantities are reported. Special attention has been given to the fluctuations of pressure and volume in simulations run in the canonical (constant NVT) and isothermal–isobaric (constant NPT) ensembles, respectively. Although a density maximum is detected by monitoring energy–volume correlations as a function of temperature, the large statistical uncertainty in the correlations reduces the significance of this finding. The main conclusions of this work are threefold. First, the use of the energy–volume correlation moment to determine the density maximum appears to be a useful method, although a number of very long simulations of between 0.5–1.0 ns over a fairly wide temperature range are necessary to obtain accurate results. Second, neither the SPC nor the SPC/E water models are able to reproduce the density of cold water accurately. Finally, a quantum mechanical treatment of the water model is necessary to correctly represent the structure, energy, and fluctuations of the condensed phase.

We study the potential energy surface (PES) sampled by a liquid modeled via the widely studied extended simple point charge (SPC/E) model for water. We characterize the curvature of the PES by calculating the instantaneous normal mode (INM) spectrum for a wide range of densities and temperatures. We discuss the information contained in the INM density of states, which requires additional processing to be unambiguously associated with the long-time dynamics. For the SPC/E model, we find that the slowing down of the dynamics in the supercooled region-where the ideal mode coupling theory has been used to describe the dynamics-is controlled by the reduction in the number of directions in configuration space that allow a structural change. We find that the fraction f(dw) of the double-well directions in configuration space determines the value of the diffusion constant D, thereby relating a property of the PES to a macroscopic dynamic quantity; specifically, it appears that square root D is approximately linear in f(dw). Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that, at the mode coupling crossover temperature, dynamical processes based on the free exploration of configuration space vanish, and processes requiring activation dominate. Hence, the reduction of the number of directions allowing free exploration of configuration space is the mechanism of diffusion implicitly implemented in the ideal mode coupling theory. Additionally, we find a direct relationship between the number of basins sampled by the system and the number of free directions. In this picture, diffusion appears to be related to geometrical properties of the PES, and to be entropic in origin.

A novel least-squares fitting approach is presented to obtain classical force fields from trajectory and force databases produced by ab initio (e.g., Car-Parrinello) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The method was applied to derive effective nonpolarizable three-site force fields for liquid water at ambient conditions from Car-Parrinello MD simulations in the Becke-Lee-Yang-Parr approximation to the electronic density functional theory. The force-matching procedure includes a fit of short-ranged nonbonded forces, bonded forces, and atomic partial charges. The various parameterizations of the water force field differ by an enforced smooth cut-off applied to the short-ranged interaction term. These were obtained by fitting to the trajectory and force data produced by Car-Parrinello MD simulations of systems of 32 and 64 H(2)O molecules. The new water force fields were developed assuming both flexible or rigid molecular geometry. The simulated structural and self-diffusion properties of liquid water using the fitted force fields are in close agreement with those observed in the underlying Car-Parrinello MD simulations. The resulting empirical models compare to experiment much better than many conventional simple point charge (SPC) models. The fitted potential is also shown to combine well with more sophisticated intramolecular potentials. Importantly, the computational cost of the new models is comparable to that for SPC-like potentials.

Improved SPC force field of water based on the dielectric constant: SPC/[formula omitted

Water is a notoriously difficult substance to model both accurately and efficiently. Here, we focus on descriptions with a single coarse-grained particle per molecule using the so-called approximate non-conformal and generalized Stockmayer potentials as the starting points. They are fitted using the radial distribution function and the liquid-gas density profile of the atomistic extended simple point charge (SPC/E) model by downhill simplex optimization. We compare the results with monatomic water (mW), ELBA, and direct iterative Boltzmann inversion of SPC/E. The results show that symmetrical potentials result in non-transferable models, that is, they need to be reparametrized for new state points. This indicates that transferability may require more complex models. Furthermore, the results also show that the addition of a point dipole is not sufficient to make the potentials accurate and transferable to different temperatures (300 K-500 K) and pressures without an appropriate choice of properties as targets during model optimization.

The ice/water interface is investigated using the simple point charge (SPC) model for water. Molecular dynamics simulations at constant NVE demonstrate that the model interface is stable on the time scale of at least 300 ps. The density profile and mean square displacement of molecules are measured, and the results are nearly identical to those obtained earlier using the TIP4P model for water. This is additional evidence that the properties measured in the simulation are intrinsic to the ice/water interface and do not depend on the particular model potentials employed.

On the Temperature and Pressure Dependence of a Range of Properties of a Type of Water Model Commonly Used in High-Temperature Protein Unfolding Simulations

Relation between structural and dynamical anomalies in supercooled water

We investigate structural order in glassy water by performing classical molecular dynamics simulations using the extended simple point charge (SPC/E) model of water. We perform isochoric cooling simulations across the glass transition temperature at different cooling rates and densities. We quantify structural order by orientational and translational order metrics. Upon cooling the liquid into the glassy state, both the orientational order parameter Q and translational order parameter tau increase. At T=0 K, the glasses fall on a line in the Q-tau plane or order map. The position of this line depends only on density and coincides with the location in the order map of the inherent structures (IS) sampled upon cooling. We evaluate the energy of the IS, eIS(T), and find that both order parameters for the IS are proportional to eIS. We also study the structural order during the transformation of low-density amorphous ice (LDA) to high-density amorphous ice (HDA) upon isothermal compression and are able to identify distinct regions in the order map corresponding to these glasses. Comparison of the order parameters for LDA and HDA with those obtained upon isochoric cooling indicates major structural differences between glasses obtained by cooling and glasses obtained by compression. These structural differences are only weakly reflected in the pair correlation function. We also characterize the evolution of structural order upon isobaric annealing, leading at high pressure to very-high density amorphous ice (VHDA).

We present a Monte Carlo simulation study of adsorption and desorption for two molecular models of water in activated carbon, focusing on the temperature range for which the system exhibits hysteresis. The activated carbon is modeled using an adaptation of the platelet model developed by Segarra and Glandt (Chem. Eng. Sci. 1994, 49 (17), 2953−2965). The active sites in the carbon are modeled by placing interaction sites at the periphery of the platelets. To model water we have used two model potentials: the simple point charge (SPC) model and adaptation of the primitive model of water developed by Kolafa and Nezbeda (Mol. Phys. 1987, 61 (1), 161−175). We find that both models considered yield quite good qualitative agreement with the experimental data for water in BPL carbon obtained by Levan and co-workers (Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 1992, 31 (4), 1122−1130). In particular both the shape of the hysteresis loops and their temperature dependence are correctly described by the simulation results. The sensitivity of the results to changes in the model parameters is investigated.

We propose a simple, two-site model of water, using the familiar three-site Simple Point Charge (SPC) model as a guide. We briefly examine the resulting dielectric and solvation properties of the bulk fluid, both pure and in a three component mixture of apolar or ionic simple fluid solutes, using integral equation methods. The results confirm a practical utility of this simplified model, and the essential predictive properties of the site-renormalised molecular fluid theory.

In the context of classical molecular simulations, the accuracy of a force field is highly influenced by the values of the relevant simulation parameters. In this work, a parameter-space mapping (PSM) workflow is proposed to aid in the calibration of force-field parameters, based mainly on the following features: (i) regular-grid discretization of the search space; (ii) partial sampling of the search-space grid; (iii) training of surrogate models to predict the estimates of the target properties for nonsampled parameter sets; (iv) post hoc interpretation of the results in terms of multiobjective optimization concepts; (v) attenuation of statistical errors achieved via empiric extension of the duration of the simulations; (vi) iterative search-space translation according to a user-defined scalar objective function that measures the accuracy of the force field (e.g., the weighted root-mean-square deviation of the target properties relative to the reference data). This combination of features results in a hybrid of a single- and a multiobjective optimization strategy, allowing for the approximate determination of both a local minimum of the chosen objective function and its neighboring Pareto efficient points. The PSM workflow is implemented in the extensible Python program gmak, which is made available in the Git repository at http://github.com/mssm-labmmol/gmak. Using this implementation, the PSM workflow was tested in a proof-of-concept fashion in the recalibration of the Lennard-Jones parameters of the 3-point Optimal Point Charge (OPC3) water model for compatibility with the GROMOS treatment of nonbonded interactions. The recalibrated model reproduces typical pure-liquid properties with an accuracy similar to the original OPC3 model and represents a significant improvement relative to the Simple Point Charge (SPC) model, which is the official recommendation for simulations using GROMOS force fields.