Simulation moléculaire de monocouches auto-assemblées sur l'or

Ce travail concerne l'étude de monocouches auto-assemblées (SAMs) sur l'or par simulation moléculaire. Des SAMs électroactives formées de chaines ferrocenylalcanethiols et alcanethiols et des SAMs constituées de b-cyclodextrines immobilisées sur des surfaces pouvant donner lieu à la formation de complexes d'inclusion à l'interface ont été étudiées. L'objectif était d'obtenir des grandeurs macroscopiques qui soient directement comparables aux grandeurs expérimentales. Pour cela, des simulations de dynamique moléculaire ont été couplées à des calculs de perturbation thermodynamique afin d'obtenir des grandeurs rédox et des propriétés thermodynamiques d'association. La reproduction de grandeurs expérimentales a dans un premier temps permis de valider les méthodologies de simulation et les champs de forces utilisés. Ceci a ensuite conduit à envisager la simulation moléculaire comme une technique prédictive pour l'étude de nouveaux systèmes. Les grandeurs macroscopiques obtenues ont pu être interprétées grâce à une caractérisation structurale et énergétique des processus mis en jeu.This work concerns the study of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on gold surfaces by molecular simulation. Electroactive SAMs formed by both ferrocenylalkanethiol and alkanethiol chains and SAMs of immobilized b-cyclodextrins that can form inclusion complexes at the interface were investigated. The objective of this study was to use molecular simulation to reproduce macroscopic properties that can be directly compared with experimental results. Molecular dynamics simulations are coupled to perturbation methods in order to calculate redox properties and thermodynamic properties of association. The comparison with experimental data allows us to validate simulation methodologies and forcefields and to consider simulation as a predictive tool for the study of new systems. Molecular dynamic also provides a rationalization of the macroscopic properties at the atomic level by a structural and energetic analysis of the processes involved in the reactions.CLERMONT FD-Bib.électronique (631139902) / SudocSudocFranceF

How does the electronic continuum model perform in the prediction of the surface tension of salt solutions?

International audienceThe electronic continuum (EC) model uses a scaling of the charges of the ions in order to model implicitly the polarization into nonpolarizable models. This scaling procedure is applied here to two standard nonpolarizable force fields to investigate the salt concentration dependence of the surface tension and density of NaCl aqueous solutions. The composition of the interface and the orientation of the water molecules at the water surface are reported for different combinations of force fields

Cloud Microorganisms, an Interesting Source of Biosurfactants

A new scientific hypothesis states that biosurfactants from cloud microorganism origin could change the surface tension of aerosols and thus the mode of precipitations. In order to check this hypothesis, our team has screened a collection of 480 microbial strains isolated from cloud waters for the production of biosurfactants and showed that 42% of these strains were producing such molecules. In the present work, we isolated and identified by LC-MS-MS lipopeptides produced from three strains issued from this screening. Viscosin and massetolide E (cyclic lipopeptides) were produced by Pseudomonas sp. PDD-14b-2, and syringafactins (linear lipopeptides) were produced by Xanthomonas campestris PDD-32b-52 and Pseudomonas syringae PDD-32b-74. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) of these biosurfactants was determined using the pendant drop method. Finally, two approaches of molecular dynamics were used to model the conformation of viscosin and syringafactin A at the water-air interface: one is based on all-atoms simulation (CHARMM force field), while the other one on coarse-grain (CG) simulation (MARTINI force field). To conclude, this work shows how the biodiversity of the cloud microbiota can be explored to search and produce biosurfactants of interest both for atmospheric sciences and also for biotechnological applications

Multiscale modelling of polymer materials.

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Calculation of the surface tension of planar interfaces by molecular simulations: from Lennard-Jones fluids to binary mixtures.

International audienceThe relative longevity of the research in the field of the molecular simulations of the liquid-vapour interfaces of Lennard-Jones (LJ) particles can be explained by the dependence of the surface tension on many methodological factors. After a few illustrations on the parameters that can impact the results of surface tension on the LJ interfaces, we establish the ability of the current methodologies to quantitatively predict the surface tension of various liquid-vapour interfaces of pure components at different temperatures. We also show that the methods perform very well for the reproduction of the interfacial tension of binary mixtures in a wide range of pressures

Simulation multi-échelle de matériaux polymères.

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Simulation numérique de matériaux aux échelles moléculaires et mésoscopiques

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DPD simulations of polymer brushes : friction and compression.

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MD simulations of the collision between a copper ion and a polyethylene surface: an application to the plasma–insulating material interaction

To allow a better understanding of the physical phenomena occurred between a plasma and an insulating material, we have developed a specific MD code to study this type of interaction. We report results of MD simulations of the interaction of an incoming copper ion with a polyethylene crystal surface. Three initial incoming velocities and four impact angle values are used to check the influence of both the incident energy and impact direction to the resulting surface damage. When the incoming ion velocity is sufficiently high, MD results show that the impact can cause bond breaking leading to uncoordinated carbon atoms and free hydrogen atoms. The values of local temperatures associated with the structural changes show a possible ablation of the polyethylene surface

Coarse grained simulations of the electrolytes at the water-air interface from Many Body Dissipative Particle Dynamics

International audienceModeling interfacial properties is a major challenge for mesoscopic simulation methods. Many-body dissipative particle dynamics (MDPD) is then a promising method to model heterogeneous systems at long time and length scales. However no rule exists to obtain a set of MDPD parameters capable to reproduce the thermodynamic properties of a molecular system of a specific chemistry. In this letter, we provide a general multiscale method to obtain a set of parameters from atomistic simulations using Flory−Huggins theory (FH) to be used with dissipative particle dynamics. We demonstrate the high quality and the transferability of the resulting parameters on the salt concentration dependence of surface tension. We also show the specificity of inorganic salt at the water−air interface. Our results indicate that the increase of surface tension with the salt concentration cannot be explained in terms of the charge image concept based on the Wagner, Onsager, and Samaras theory but rather in terms of the ion hydration