What is the best simulation approach for measuring local density fluctuations near solvo-/hydrophobes?
| Autor: | Wilding NB; H.H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, Royal Fort, Bristol BS8 1TL, United Kingdom., Evans R; H.H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, Royal Fort, Bristol BS8 1TL, United Kingdom., Turci F; H.H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, Royal Fort, Bristol BS8 1TL, United Kingdom. |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Zdroj: | The Journal of chemical physics [J Chem Phys] 2024 Apr 28; Vol. 160 (16). |
| DOI: | 10.1063/5.0203088 |
| Abstrakt: | Measurements of local density fluctuations are crucial to characterizing the interfacial properties of equilibrium fluids. A specific case that has been well-explored involves the heightened compressibility of water near hydrophobic entities. Commonly, a spatial profile of local fluctuation strength is constructed from the measurements of the mean and variance of solvent particle number fluctuations in a set of contiguous subvolumes of the system adjacent to the solvo-/hydrophobe. An alternative measure proposed by Evans and Stewart [J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 27, 194111 (2015)] defines a local compressibility profile in terms of the chemical potential derivative of the spatial number density profile. Using Grand canonical Monte Carlo simulation, we compare and contrast the efficacy of these two approaches for a Lennard-Jones solvent at spherical and planar solvophobic interfaces and SPC/E water at a hydrophobic spherical solute. Our principal findings are as follows: (i) the local compressibility profile χ(r) of Evans and Stewart is considerably more sensitive to variations in the strength of local density fluctuations than the spatial fluctuation profile F(r) and can resolve much more detailed structure; and (ii) while the local compressibility profile is essentially independent of the choice of spatial discretization used to construct the profile, the spatial fluctuation profile exhibits a strong systematic dependence on the size of the subvolumes on which the profile is defined. We clarify the origin and nature of this finite-size effect. (© 2024 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).) |
| Databáze: | MEDLINE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|