Effects of hydrogen-bond environment on single particle and pair dynamics in liquid water

We have performed molecular dynamics simulations of liquid water at 298 and 258 K to investigate the effects of hydrogen-bond environment on various single-particle and pair dynamical properties of water molecules at ambient and supercooled conditions. The water molecules are modelled by the extended simple point charge (SPC/E) model. We first calculate the distribution of hydrogen-bond environment in liquid water at both temperatures and then investigate how the self-diffusion and orientational relaxation of a single water molecule and also the relative diffusion and relaxation of the hydrogen-bond of a water pair depend on the nature of the hydrogen-bond environment of the tagged molecules. We find that the various dynamical quantities depend significantly on the hydrogen-bond environment, especially at the supercooled temperature. The present study provides a molecular-level insight into the dynamics of liquid water under ambient and supercooled conditions

Frequency dependence of ionic conductivity of electrolyte solutions

A theory for the frequency dependence of ionic conductivity of an electrolyte solution is presented. In this theory contributions to the conductivity from both the ion atmosphere relaxation and the electrophoretic effects are included in a self-consistent fashion. Mode coupling theory, combined with time-dependent density functional theory of ion atmosphere fluctuations, leads to expressions for these two contributions at finite frequencies. These expressions need to be solved self-consistently for the frequency dependence of the electrolyte friction and the ion conductivity at varying ion concentrations. In the limit of low concentration, the present theory reduces exactly to the well-known Debye-Falkenhagen (DF) expression of the frequency-dependent electrolyte friction when the non-Markovian effects in the ion atmosphere relaxation are ignored and in addition the ions are considered to be pointlike. The present theory also reproduces the expressions of the frequency-dependent conductivity derived by Chandra, Wei, and Patey when appropriate limiting situations are considered. We have carried out detailed numerical solutions of the self-consistent equations for concentrated solutions of a 1:1 electrolyte by using the expressions of pair correlation functions given by Attard. Numerical results reveal that the frequency dependence of the electrolyte friction at finite concentration can be quite different from that given by the DF expression. With the increase of ion concentration, the dispersion of the friction is found to occur at a higher frequency because of faster relaxation of the ion atmosphere. At low frequency, the real part of the conductivity shows a small increase with frequency which can be attributed to the well-known Debye-Falkenhagen effect. At high frequency, the conductivity decreases as expected. The extensions of the present theory to treat frequency-dependent diffusivities of charged colloid suspensions and conductivity of a dilute polyelectrolyte solution are discussed

Hydration and translocation of an excess proton in water clusters: an ab initio molecular dynamics study

The hydration structure and translocation of an excess proton in hydrogen bonded water clusters of two different sizes are investigated by means of finite temperature quantum simulations. The simulations are performed by employing the method of Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics where the forces on the nuclei are obtained directly from 'on the fly' quantum electronic structure calculations. Since no predefined interaction potentials are used in this scheme, it is ideally suited to study proton translocation processes which proceed through breaking and formation of chemical bonds. The coordination number of the hydrated proton and the index of oxygen to which the excess proton is attached are calculated along the simulation trajectories for both the clusters

Filled and empty states of carbon nanotubes in water: dependence on nanotube diameter, wall thickness and dispersion interactions

We have carried out a series of molecular dynamics simulations of water containing a narrow carbon nanotube as a solute to investigate the filling and emptying of the nanotube and also the modifications of the density and hydrogen bond distributions of water inside and also in the vicinity of the outer surfaces of the nanotube. Our primary goal is to look at the effects of varying nanotube diameter, wall thickness and also solute-solvent interactions on the solvent structure in the confined region also near the outer surfaces of the solute. The thickness of the walls is varied by considering single and multi-walled nanotubes and the interaction potential is varied by tuning the attractive strength of the 12-6 pair interaction potential between a carbon atom of the nanotubes and a water molecule. The calculations are done for many different values of the tuning parameter ranging from fully Lennard-Jones to pure repulsive pair interactions. It is found that both the solvation characteristics and hydrogen bond distributions can depend rather strongly on the strength of the attractive part of the solute-water interaction potential. The thickness of the nanotube wall, however, is found to have only minor effects on the density profiles, hydrogen bond network and the wetting characteristics. This indicates that the long range electrostatic interactions between water molecules inside and on the outer side of the nanotube do not make any significant contribution to the overall solvation structure of these hydrophobic solutes. The solvation characteristics are primarily determined by the balance between the loss of energy due to hydrogen bond network disruption, cavity repulsion potential and offset of the same by attractive component of the solute-water interactions. Our studies with different system sizes show that the essential features of wetting and dewetting characteristics of narrow nanotubes for different diameter and interaction potentials are also present in relatively smaller systems consisting of about five hundred molecules

Water structure near single and multi-layer nanoscopic hydrophobic plates of varying separation and interaction potentials

We have performed a series of molecular dynamics simulations of water containing two nanoscopic hydrophobic plates to investigate the modifications of the density and hydrogen bond distributions of water in the vicinity of the surfaces. Our primary goal is to look at the effects of plate thickness, solute-solvent interaction and also interplate separation on the solvent structure in the confined region between two graphite-like plates and also near the outer surfaces of the plates. The thickness of the plates is varied by considering single and triple-layer graphite plates and the interaction potential is varied by tuning the attractive strength of the 12-6 pair interaction potential between a carbon atom of the graphite plates and a water molecule. The calculations are done for four different values of the tuning parameter ranging from fully Lennard-Jones to pure repulsive pair interactions. It is found that both the solvation characteristics and hydrogen bond distributions can depend rather strongly on the strength of the attractive part of the solute-water interaction potential. The thickness of the plates, however, is found to have only minor effects on the density profiles and hydrogen bond network. This indicates that the long range electrostatic interactions between water molecules on the two opposite sides of the same plate do not make any significant contribution to the overall solvation structure of these hydrophobic plates. The solvation characteristics are primarily determined by the balance between the loss of energy due to hydrogen bond network disruption, cavity repulsion potential and offset of the same by attractive component of the solute-water interactions. Our studies with different system sizes show that the essential features of solvation properties, e.g. wetting and dewetting characteristics for different interplate separations and interaction potentials, are also present in relatively smaller systems consisting of a few hundred atoms

From ab initio quantum chemistry to molecular dynamics: The delicate case of hydrogen bonding in ammonia

The ammonia dimer (NH3)2 has been investigated using high--level ab initio quantum chemistry methods and density functional theory (DFT). The structure and energetics of important isomers is obtained to unprecedented accuracy without resorting to experiment. The global minimum of eclipsed C_s symmetry is characterized by a significantly bent hydrogen bond which deviates from linearity by about 20 degrees. In addition, the so-called cyclic C_{2h} structure is extremely close in energy on an overall flat potential energy surface. It is demonstrated that none of the currently available (GGA, meta--GGA, and hybrid) density functionals satisfactorily describe the structure and relative energies of this nonlinear hydrogen bond. We present a novel density functional, HCTH/407+, designed to describe this sort of hydrogen bond quantitatively on the level of the dimer, contrary to e.g. the widely used BLYP functional. This improved functional is employed in Car-Parrinello ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of liquid ammonia to judge its performance in describing the associated liquid. Both the HCTH/407+ and BLYP functionals describe the properties of the liquid well as judged by analysis of radial distribution functions, hydrogen bonding structure and dynamics, translational diffusion, and orientational relaxation processes. It is demonstrated that the solvation shell of the ammonia molecule in the liquid phase is dominated by steric packing effects and not so much by directional hydrogen bonding interactions. In addition, the propensity of ammonia molecules to form bifurcated and multifurcated hydrogen bonds in the liquid phase is found to be negligibly small.Comment: Journal of Chemical Physics, in press (305335JCP

Connecting solvation shell structure to proton transport kinetics in hydrogen-bonded networks via population correlation functions

A theory based on population correlation functions is introduced for connecting solvation topologies and microscopic mechanisms to transport kinetics of charge defects in hydrogen-bonded networks. The theory is tested on the hydrated proton by extracting a comprehensive set of relaxation times, lifetimes, and rates from ab initio molecular dynamics simulations and comparing to recent femtosecond experiments. When applied to the controversial case of the hydrated hydroxide ion, the theory predicts that only one out of three proposed transport models is consistent with known experimental data

Maximum Aerobic Capacity of Underground Coal Miners in India

Miners fitness test was assessed in terms of determination of maximum aerobic capacity by an indirect method following a standard step test protocol before going down to mine by taking into consideration of heart rates (Telemetric recording) and oxygen consumption of the subjects (Oxylog-II) during exercise at different working rates. Maximal heart rate was derived as 220−age. Coal miners reported a maximum aerobic capacity within a range of 35–38.3 mL/kg/min. It also revealed that oldest miners (50–59 yrs) had a lowest maximal oxygen uptake (34.2 ± 3.38 mL/kg/min) compared to (42.4 ± 2.03 mL/kg/min) compared to (42.4 ± 2.03 mL/kg/min) the youngest group (20–29 yrs). It was found to be negatively correlated with age (r = −0.55 and −0.33 for younger and older groups respectively) and directly associated with the body weight of the subjects (r = 0.57 – 0.68, P ≤ 0.001). Carriers showed maximum cardio respiratory capacity compared to other miners. Indian miners VO2max was found to be lower both compared to their abroad mining counterparts and various other non-mining occupational working groups in India

A theoretical study of outersphere electron transfer reactions in electrolyte solutions

A microscopic theory of outersphere electron transfer reactions in electrolyte solutions is presented. Both static and dynamic effects of solvent and ion atmosphere on rates of electron transfer are calculated by employing molecular models. The donor-acceptor system is composed of two spheres and the electrolyte solution is composed of dipolar solvent molecules and ions which are treated at the same molecular level. A microscopic expression for the free energy of activation is derived by using density functional theory. The dynamic effects are calculated by using a molecular hydrodynamic theory which properly includes finite wave vector modes of relaxation of solvent and ion atmosphere. Explicit numerical results are presented for the activation free energy and the rate constant of electron transfer in solutions of varying ion concentration. It is found that ion atmosphere can make an important contribution to the activation free energy at finite ion concentration although the net increase in the activation energy is not very significant for the solutions studied in this work. This happens because, with increase of ion concentration, the ion atmosphere contribution to the total activation free energy increases, whereas the solvent contribution shows a decreasing trend. The solvent behaves as an effective less polar medium due to screening by ions and, therefore, its contribution to the activation free energy decreases as ion concentration is increased