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Structural and spectroscopic properties of water around small hydrophobic solutes.

ABSTRACT: We investigated the structural, dynamical and spectroscopic properties of water molecules around a solvated methane by means of Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulations. Despite their mobility, in the first shell, water molecules are dynamically displaced in a clathrate-like cage around the hydrophobic solute. No significant differences in water geometrical parameters, in molecular dipole moments or in hydrogen bonding properties, are observed between in-shell and out-shell molecules, indicating that liquid water can accommodate a small hydrophobic solute without altering its structural properties. The calculated contribution of the first-shell water molecules to the infrared spectra does not show significant differences with respect the bulk signal once the effects of the missing polarization of second-shell molecules has been taken into account. Small fingerprints of the clathrate-like structure appear in the vibrational density of states in the libration and OH stretching regions.

SUBMITTER: Montagna M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3789940 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Structural and spectroscopic properties of water around small hydrophobic solutes.

Montagna Maria M Sterpone Fabio F Guidoni Leonardo L

The journal of physical chemistry. B 20120918 38

We investigated the structural, dynamical and spectroscopic properties of water molecules around a solvated methane by means of Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulations. Despite their mobility, in the first shell, water molecules are dynamically displaced in a clathrate-like cage around the hydrophobic solute. No significant differences in water geometrical parameters, in molecular dipole moments or in hydrogen bonding properties, are observed between in-shell and out-shell molecules, indic ...[more]

PMID: 22946539

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Project description:Performance of membranes for water purification is highly influenced by the interactions of solvated species with membrane surfaces, including surface adsorption of solutes upon fouling. Current efforts toward fouling-resistant membranes often pursue surface hydrophilization, frequently motivated by macroscopic measures of hydrophilicity, because hydrophobicity is thought to increase solute-surface affinity. While this heuristic has driven diverse membrane functionalization strategies, here we build on advances in the theory of hydrophobicity to critically examine the relevance of macroscopic characterizations of solute-surface affinity. Specifically, we use molecular simulations to quantify the affinities to model hydroxyl- and methyl-functionalized surfaces of small, chemically diverse, charge-neutral solutes represented in produced water. We show that surface affinities correlate poorly with two conventional measures of solute hydrophobicity, gas-phase water solubility and oil-water partitioning. Moreover, we find that all solutes show attraction to the hydrophobic surface and most to the hydrophilic one, in contrast to macroscopically based hydrophobicity heuristics. We explain these results by decomposing affinities into direct solute interaction energies (which dominate on hydroxyl surfaces) and water restructuring penalties (which dominate on methyl surfaces). Finally, we use an inverse design algorithm to show how heterogeneous surfaces, with multiple functional groups, can be patterned to manipulate solute affinity and selectivity. These findings, importantly based on a range of solute and surface chemistries, illustrate that conventional macroscopic hydrophobicity metrics can fail to predict solute-surface affinity, and that molecular-scale surface chemical patterning significantly influences affinity-suggesting design opportunities for water purification membranes and other engineered interfaces involving aqueous solute-surface interactions.

Dataset Information

Structural and spectroscopic properties of water around small hydrophobic solutes.

Publications

Structural and spectroscopic properties of water around small hydrophobic solutes.

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