Molecular modeling of biomolecules and solutions in nanoporous materials

As one goes down the length scale to nanoworld, the properties of objects and phenomena swerve from those described by the conventional, macroscopic laws governing the behavior of continuous media and materials. The functional features of nanostructures manifest on length scale from one to hundreds nanometers and time scale up to microseconds and more, but all stem from microscopic properties of the atoms and chemical groups they are built of. Explicit molecular modeling of such nanosystems involving millions of molecules is by far not feasible with ab initio methods and molecular simulations, and requires multiple-scale approaches. Statistical-mechanical theory of molecular liquids and other disordered systems successfully describes the molecular structure and thermodynamics of nanosystems, with proper account of their chemical functionalities. It operates with spatial/temporal distributions of species averaged over the statistical ensemble rather than with trajectories of individual molecules. This coarse-graining, however, keeps the short-range detail of the solvation structure of chemical specificities, such as the hydrophobic effects, hydrogen bonding, and other association effects. Below discussed are two illustrative examples, self-assembly of organic nanotubes in electrolyte solution and electrochemical devices with nanoporous electrodes.NRC publication: Ye