Ying-Lung Steve Tse

Hydroxide Solvation and Transport in Anion Exchange Membranes

Understanding hydroxide solvation and transport in anion exchange membranes (AEMs) can provide important insight into the design principles of these new membranes. To accurately model hydroxide solvation and transport, we developed a new multiscale reactive molecular dynamics model for hydroxide in aqueous solution, which was then subsequently modified for an AEM material. With this model, we investigated the hydroxide solvation structure and transport mechanism in the membrane. We found that a relatively even separation of the rigid side chains produces a continuous overlapping region for hydroxide transport that is made up of the first hydration shell of the tethered cationic groups. Our results show that hydroxide has a significant preference for this overlapping region, transporting through it and between the AEM side chains with substantial contributions from both vehicular (standard diffusion) and Grotthuss (proton hopping) mechanisms. Comparison of the AEM with common proton exchange membranes (PEMs) showed that the excess charge is less delocalized in the AEM than the PEMs, which is correlated with a higher free energy barrier for proton transfer reactions. The vehicular mechanism also contributes considerably more than the Grotthuss mechanism for hydroxide transport in the AEM, while our previous studies of PEM systems showed a larger contribution from the Grotthuss mechanism than the vehicular mechanism for proton transport. The activation energy barrier for hydroxide diffusion in the AEM is greater than that for proton diffusion in PEMs, implying a more significant enhancement of ion transport in the AEM at elevated temperatures.

Propensity of Hydrated Excess Protons and Hydroxide Anions for the Air–Water Interface

Significant effort has been undertaken to better understand the molecular details governing the propensity of ions for the air-water interface. Facilitated by computationally efficient reactive molecular dynamics simulations, new and statistically conclusive molecular-scale results on the affinity of the hydrated excess proton and hydroxide anion for the air-water interface are presented. These simulations capture the dynamic bond breaking and formation processes (charge defect delocalization) that are important for correctly describing the solvation and transport of these complex species. The excess proton is found to be attracted to the interface, which is correlated with a favorable enthalpic contribution and consistent with reducing the disruption in the hydrogen bond network caused by the ion complex. However, a recent refinement of the underlying reactive potential energy function for the hydrated excess proton shows the interfacial attraction to be weaker, albeit nonzero, a result that is consistent with the experimental surface tension measurements. The influence of a weak hydrogen bond donated from water to the protonated oxygen, recently found to play an important role in excess hydrated proton transport in bulk water, is seen to also be important for this study. In contrast, the hydroxide ion is found to be repelled from the air-water interface. This repulsion is characterized by a reduction of the energetically favorable ion-water interactions, which creates an enthalpic penalty as the ion approaches the interface. Finally, we find that the fluctuation in the coordination number around water sheds new light on the observed entropic trends for both ions.

An analysis of hydrated proton diffusion in ab initio molecular dynamics

A detailed understanding of the inherently multiscale proton transport process raises a number of scientifically challenging questions. For example, there remain many (partially addressed) questions on the molecular mechanism for long-range proton migration and the potential for the formation of long-lived traps giving rise to burst-and-rest proton dynamics. Using results from a sizeable collection of ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations (totaling ∼2.7 ns) with various density functional approximations (Becke-Lee-Yang-Parr (BLYP), BLYP-D3, Hamprecht-Cohen-Tozer-Handy, B3LYP) and temperatures (300-330 K), equilibrium and dynamical properties of one excess proton and 128 water molecules are studied. Two features in particular (concerted hops and weak hydrogen-bond donors) are investigated to identify modes in the system that are strongly correlated with the onset of periods of burst-and-rest dynamics. The question of concerted hops seeks to identify those time scales over which long-range proton transport can be classified as a series of sequential water hopping events or as a near-simultaneous concerted process along compressed water wires. The coupling of the observed burst-and-rest dynamics with motions of a fourth neighboring water molecule (a weak hydrogen-bond donor) solvating the protonated water molecule is also investigated. The presence (absence) of hydrogen bonds involving this fourth water molecule before and after successful proton hopping events is found to be strongly correlated with periods of burst (rest) dynamics (and consistent with pre-solvation concepts). By analyzing several realizations of the AIMD trajectories on the 100-ps time scale, convergence of statistics can be assessed. For instance, it was observed that the probability for a fourth water molecule to approach the hydronium, if not already proximal at the beginning of the lifetime of the hydronium, is very low, indicative of the formation of stable void regions. Furthermore, the correlations of the neighboring water atoms are identified as the fourth water approaches the hydronium. Finally, the temperature effects on structural and dynamical properties are studied.

Ion mixing, hydration, and transport in aqueous ionic systems

The enhancement effect on the ion mobility of fluoride (and that of chloride) in a polycationic system, as the chloride content increases, is shown to also exist in other more simple ionic systems with cations such as the cesium ion and an organic ammonium ion. As the chloride content increases, in addition to the finding that there is more unbound water associated with the cation, we also observe that the average lifetime of a hydrogen bond decreases. This change to the hydrogen bonds is correlated to significant changes to both the structural and dynamical properties of water. The more disordered water structure and faster water dynamics are hypothesized to be also responsible for the enhanced ion mobilities. Furthermore, when either the chloride content or hydration level is changed, the self-diffusion constant of each co-ion changes by almost the same factor, implying the existence of a single universal transport mechanism that determines ion mobilities.

Kinetic theories of dynamics and persistent caging in a one-dimensional lattice gas

The one-dimensional, single-occupancy lattice gas exhibits highly cooperative particle motion and provides an interesting challenge for theoretical methods designed to describe caging in liquids. We employ this model in an effort to gain insight into caging phenomena in more realistic models of liquids, using a diagrammatic kinetic theory of density fluctuations to develop a series of approximations to the kinetic equations for the van Hove self-correlation function. The approximations are formulated in terms of the irreducible memory function, and we assess their efficacy by comparing their solutions with computer simulation results and the well-known subdiffusive behavior of a tagged particle at long times. The first approximation, a mode coupling theory, factorizes the 4-point propagators that contribute to the irreducible memory function into products of independent single-particle propagators. This approximation fails to capture the subdiffusive behavior of a tagged particle at long times. Analysis of the mode coupling approximation in terms of the diagrammatic kinetic theory leads to the development of two additional approximations that can be viewed as diagrammatic extensions or modifications of mode coupling theory. The first, denoted MC1, captures the long-time subdiffusive behavior of a tagged particle. The second, denoted MC2, captures the subdiffusive behavior of a tagged particle and also yields the correct amplitude of its mean square displacement at long times. Numerical and asymptotic solutions of the approximate kinetic equations share many qualitative and quantitative features with simulation results at all timescales.