Hideo Doi

Fragment Molecular Orbital Based Parametrization Procedure for Mesoscopic Structure Prediction of Polymeric Materials

In the analyses of miscibility behaviors of macromolecules and polymers, dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations are generally performed. In these simulations, the so-called χ parameters describing the effective interactions among particles are crucial. It has been known that such parameters can be obtained within the classical or empirical force field frameworks. However, there is a potential problem that charge transfer and polarization occasionally occur. Additionally, satisfactory reference parameters are not available for some cases. Therefore, we developed a new procedure to evaluate the set of parameters by using the ab initio fragment molecular orbital (FMO) method which can provide the set of interaction energies among segments as polymer units. Moreover, we evaluated the anisotropy of molecules by using the FMO-based effective interaction parameters for three standard binary mixture systems (hexane-nitrobenzene, polyisobutylene-diisobutyl ketone, and polyisoprene-polystyrene). The calculated values showed good agreement with the experimental values with about 10% errors.

Replica exchange molecular simulation of Lennard–Jones particles in a two-dimensional confined system

Confined systems exhibit interesting properties that are applied to the fields of lubrication, adhesion and nanotechnology. The replica exchange molecular simulation method was applied to calculate the phase equilibrium points of Lennard–Jones particles in a two-dimensional confined system. The liquid–solid phase equilibrium points and the solid structure with a dependency of the slit width were determined and the order parameter of the solid structure was analyzed. Such confined systems are shown to be favorable for manipulation of the phase equilibrium points.

Theoretical analyses on water cluster structures in polymer electrolyte membrane by using dissipative particle dynamics simulations with fragment molecular orbital based effective parameters

The mesoscopic structures of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) affect the performances of fuel cells. Nafion® with the Teflon® backbone has been the most widely used of all PEMs, but sulfonated poly-ether ether-ketone (SPEEK) having an aromatic backbone has drawn interest as an alternative to Nafion. In the present study, a series of dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations were performed to compare Nafion and SPEEK. These PEM polymers were modeled by connected particles corresponding to the hydrophobic backbone and the hydrophilic moiety of sulfonic acid group. The water particle interacting with Nafion particles was prepared as well. The crucial interaction parameters among DPD particles were evaluated by a series of calculations based on the fragment molecular orbital (FMO) method in a non-empirical way (Okuwaki et al., J. Phys. Chem. B, 2018, 122, 338–347). Through the DPD simulations, the water and hydrophilic particles aggregated, forming cluster networks surrounded by the hydrophobic phase. The structural features of formed water clusters were investigated in detail. Furthermore, the differences in percolation behaviors between Nafion and SPEEK revealed much better connectivity among water clusters by Nafion. The present FMO-DPD simulation results were in good agreement with available experimental data.

Approaches for Controlling the Temperature and Pressure Range in Generalized NPT Ensembles.

Isobaric-multithermal and multibaric-isothermal methods are powerful methods for sampling in a wide energy and/or volume space. A finite temperature or pressure is required to study phase diagrams and many properties of many types of systems. However, it is difficult to control the temperature or pressure range because these systems move randomly in energy or volume space. Here, we develop a method to control the temperature range in the isobaric-multithermal ensemble and a method to control the pressure range in the multibaric-isothermal ensemble. These methods have the advantage of adequately determining the weight factor to create the multicanonical ensemble and can be applied to study thermodynamic properties.