Tomonari Sumi

A cooperative phenomenon between polymer chain and supercritical solvent: Remarkable expansions of solvophobic and solvophilic polymers

We propose a simulation method for infinitely dilute polymer solutions. In this method, an effective Hamiltonian of the solvated polymer chain is introduced to eliminate the degree of freedom of the solvent particle. The effective Hamiltonian is coupled with the density-functional theory (DFT) that we have developed for a polymer-solvent pair correlation function. All the equations proposed in this paper are derived from the first principle. This simulation method was applied to polymer chains in supercritical solvents. We observed anomalous behaviors of polymer chains near the liquid-vapor critical point: both solvophilic and solvophobic polymers expand significantly near the critical point; this is in contrast to the behavior of polymer chains in vacuum. This expansion can be interpreted as a cooperative phenomenon, which enhances the large long-wavelength density fluctuation of the solvent.

Integral equations for molecular fluids based on the interaction site model: Density-functional formulation

An integral equation for rigid-body molecules with respect to site-density distribution function under arbitrary external fields is derived by the density-functional theory. Using a grand canonical partition function of molecular systems, we extend original Percus’ idea to molecular fluids. The extended Percus’ idea provides a relation between the site–site pair distribution function and site–density distribution function under an external field composed of the site–site interaction potentials of a molecule fixed at the origin. The site–density integral equation combined with the extended Percus’ relation to molecular fluids gives a closure relation of reference interaction site model equation. The site–site pair distribution functions of homonuclear diatomic Lennard-Jones fluids obtained by the integral equation agree well with those of Monte Carlo simulation.

Ab initio CASSCF and MRSDCI calculations of the (C6H6)2+ radical

Abstract Ab initio complete-active-space self-consistent-field (CASSCF), single-reference singly and doubly excited configuration interaction (SRSDCI), and multi-reference SDCI (MRSDCI) calculations were performed for the benzene trimer cation, (C 6 H 6 ) 3 + , in its ground state. We found that the global minimum of the cation is the distorted C 2v sandwich structure, which is 0.032 eV lower than the D 6h sandwich structure. The dissociation energy ( D e ) relative to (C 6 H 6 ) 2 + +C 6 H 6 was calculated to be 0.43 eV, in comparison to the experimental value ( D 0 ) of 0.34±0.02 eV. Our calculations revealed that most of the charge of the trimer cation is localized in the central benzene ring, whose gross charge is +0.9. The low-lying excited states arising from the π–π transition are also discussed.

A density-functional theory for polymer liquids based on the interaction site model

The density-functional theory (DFT) for molecular fluids [J. Chem. Phys. 115, 6653 (2001)] is extended to the case of polymer liquids. A system consisting of the ideal chains is employed as a reference system for the DFT, where many-body effects are considered as an effective field that acts on each site of the ideal chains. We derived a relation between the site–site pair distribution functions and the site–density distribution functions under a mean field arising from a single polymer molecule. An integral equation for the site–site pair distribution functions is obtained by the DFT, where the external field is taken to be the mean field. We propose an approximate expression of the intramolecular correlation functions for isolated single-polymer chains to take account for the excluded volume effects inside a polymer chain. The intramolecular correlation function considering the excluded volume effects was in qualitative agreement with those obtained from a simulation for liquid consisting of freely join...

An interaction site model integral equation study of molecular fluids explicitly considering the molecular orientation.

We implemented an interaction site model integral equation for rigid molecules based on a density-functional theory where the molecular orientation is explicitly considered. In this implementation of the integral equation, multiple integral of the degree of freedom of the molecular orientation is performed using efficient quadrature methods, so that the site-site pair correlation functions are evaluated exactly in the limit of low density. We apply this method to Cl(2), HCl, and H(2)O molecular fluids that have been investigated by several integral equation studies using various models. The site-site pair correlation functions obtained from the integral equation are in good agreement with the one from a simulation of these molecules. Rotational invariant coefficients, which characterize the microscopic structure of molecular fluids, are determined from the integral equation and the simulation in order to investigate the accuracy of the integral equation.

Effects of hydrophobic hydration on polymer chains immersed in supercooled water

A multiscale simulation of a hydrophobic polymer chain immersed in water including the supercooled region is presented. Solvent effects on the polymer conformation were taken into account via liquid–state density functional theory in which a free-energy functional model was constructed using a density response function of bulk water, determined from a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. This approach overcomes sampling problems in simulations of high-viscosity polymer solutions in the deeply supercooled region. Isobars determined from the MD simulations of 4000 water molecules suggest a liquid–liquid transition in the deeply supercooled region. The multiscale simulation reveals that a hydrophobic polymer chain exhibits swelling upon cooling along isobars below a hypothesized second critical pressure; no remarkable swelling is observed at higher pressures. These observations agree with the behavior of a polymer chain in a Jagla solvent model that qualitatively reproduces the thermodynamics and dynamics of liquid water. A theoretical analysis of the results obtained from the multiscale simulation show that a decrease in entropy due to the swelling arises from the formation of a tetrahedral hydrogen bond network in the hydration shell.

A path integral influence functional for excess electron in fluids: Density-functional formulation.

In this paper, we propose a path integral influence functional from a solvent to determine a self-correlation function of a quantum particle in classical simple fluid. It is shown that the influence functional is related to a grand potential functional of the pure solvent under a three-dimensional external field arising from a classical isomorphic polymer, on which the quantum particle is mapped. The influence functional can be calculated from the self-correlation function, the solute-solvent and the solvent-solvent pair correlation function. The obtained equation of the self-correlation function is applied to an excess electron problem in fluid helium. The Fourier path-integral Monte Carlo method is employed to perform the path integral of the electron. The solute-solvent pair correlation function is estimated from a reference interaction site model integral equation. These results obtained form our proposed influence functional and from that proposed by Chandler, Singh, and Richardson are compared with those provided by a path integral Monte Carlo simulation with the explicit helium solvent.

A solvation‐free‐energy functional: A reference‐modified density functional formulation

The three‐dimensional reference interaction site model (3D‐RISM) theory, which is one of the most applicable integral equation theories for molecular liquids, overestimates the absolute values of solvation‐free‐energy (SFE) for large solute molecules in water. To improve the free‐energy density functional for the SFE of solute molecules, we propose a reference‐modified density functional theory (RMDFT) that is a general theoretical approach to construct the free‐energy density functional systematically. In the RMDFT formulation, hard‐sphere (HS) fluids are introduced as the reference system instead of an ideal polyatomic molecular gas, which has been regarded as the appropriate reference system of the interaction‐site‐model density functional theory for polyatomic molecular fluids. We show that using RMDFT with a reference HS system can significantly improve the absolute values of the SFE for a set of neutral amino acid side‐chain analogues as well as for 504 small organic molecules.

Possible mechanism underlying high-pressure unfolding of proteins: formation of a short-period high-density hydration shell

Hydration effects on high-pressure unfolding of a hydrophobic polymer chain are investigated through a multiscale simulation based on density-functional theory. The results strongly suggest the following: a thermodynamic origin for high-pressure denaturation, i.e., the decrease in volume due to the unfolding can be explained by the formation of a short-period high-density hydration shell.

Integral equation study of hydrophobic interaction: A comparison between the simple point charge model for water and a Lennard-Jones model for solvent

The hydrophobic interaction that is characterized by a potential of mean force (PMF) between spherical apolar solutes immersed in the simple point charge (SPCE) model for water was studied using an interaction site model integral equation based on a density-functional theory for molecular fluids. For comparison with the PMFs for various size solutes in the SPCE model, the PMFs in a Lennard-Jones (LJ) model for a solvent whose diameter is same as the SPCE model were also studied using a hypernetted chain integral equation. It is noted in the LJ model that the hydrogen bond and its network structure are completely ignored, but the translational entropy is taken into account. Both PMFs obtained from the SPCE model and from the LJ model have a large first minimum at a contact distance of solutes. In the case that the solute size is about three times larger than water, these PMFs also have a large maximum at a longer distance than the contact position. The strong attraction is attributed to the translational entropy of the solvent, and that the large activation barrier is arising from the weak attraction between the solute and the solvent. The comparison between the SPCE model and the LJ solvent model suggests that the qualitative description of the hydrophobic interaction is possible by using the LJ solvent model. On the other hand, the dewetting tendency on the surface of the apolar solute in a room condition is observed only on the SPCE model. These results indicate that the characteristics of water such as the hydrogen bond affect rather the hydrophobic hydration than the hydrophobic interaction.