Hydrogen bonding explicit term model

Stretching, bond bending, torsions, electrostatic interactions, van der Waals forces, and hydrogen bonding. Force fields differ in the number of terms in the energy expression, the complexity of those terms, and the way in which the constants were obtained. Since electrons are not explicitly included, electronic processes cannot be modeled. 

The first three terms, stretch, bend and torsion, are common to most force fields although their explicit form may vary. The nonbonded terms may be further divided into contributions from Van der Waals (VdW), electrostatic and hydrogen-bond interactions. Most force fields include potential functions for the first two interaction types (Lennard-Jones type or Buckingham type functions for VdW interactions and charge-charge or dipole-dipole terms for the electrostatic interactions). Explicit hydrogen-bond functions are less common and such interactions are often modeled by the VdW expression with special parameters for the atoms which participate in the hydrogen bond (see below). 

In other words, since for solvents with H-bonding ability (methanol and water) the aN of the nitroxide radical is shifted to higher values because of the influence of one or more hydrogen bonds between the solute and the solvent, it becomes necessary to build a model in which nonspecific effects are described in terms of continuum polarizable medium with a dielectric constant typical of the protic solvent under study, whereas specific effects are taken into account through an explicit hydrogen-bonded complex between the radical and some solvent molecules. Figure 2.6 reports the aN values for the complexes formed by TEMPO with phenol, methanol, and water measured experimentally at room temperature, and computed in the gas phase and in solution. The values computed in solution fit the experimental data quite well. 

In all of these models, the hydrogen bonds, or the structure of liquid water, were traditionally emphasized as the main molecular reasons for the anomalous behavior exhibited by liquid water. However, underlying this relatively ill-defined concept of structure (which was much later defined in statistical mechanical terms see Sec. 2.7) lies a more fundamental principle which can be defined in molecular terms, and which does not explicitly mention the concept of structure yet is responsible for the unusual properties of liquid water. This principle was first formulated in terms of generalized molecular distribution functions in 1973. It states that there exists a range of temperatures and pressures at which the water-water interactions produce a unique correlation between high local density and a weak binding energy. Clearly, this principle does not mention structure. As will be demonstrated in this section, it is this principle, not the structure per se, which is responsible for the unique properties of water as well as of aqueous solutions. ... 

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