Solute solvation shell

Sim J, Bousquet D, Forbert H, Marx D (2010) Glycine in aqueous solution solvation shells, interfacial water, and vibrational spectroscopy from ab initio molecular dynamics. J Chem Phys 133 114508... 

Specific solute-solvent interactions involving the first solvation shell only can be treated in detail by discrete solvent models. The various approaches like point charge models, siipennoleciilar calculations, quantum theories of reactions in solution, and their implementations in Monte Carlo methods and molecular dynamics simulations like the Car-Parrinello method are discussed elsewhere in this encyclopedia. Here only some points will be briefly mentioned that seem of relevance for later sections. 

In either case, the structure of the solvation shell has to be calculated by otiier methods supplied or introduced ad hoc by some fiirther model assumptions, while charge distributions of the solute and within solvent molecules are obtained from quantum chemistry. 

Modem understanding of the hydrophobic effect attributes it primarily to a decrease in the number of hydrogen bonds that can be achieved by the water molecules when they are near a nonpolar surface. This view is confirmed by computer simulations of nonpolar solutes in water [15]. To a first approximation, the magnimde of the free energy associated with the nonpolar contribution can thus be considered to be proportional to the number of solvent molecules in the first solvation shell. This idea leads to a convenient and attractive approximation that is used extensively in biophysical applications [9,16-18]. It consists in assuming that the nonpolar free energy contribution is directly related to the SASA [9],... 

Finally, we want to describe two examples of those isolated polymer chains in a sea of solvent molecules. Polymer chains relax considerably faster in a low-molecular-weight solvent than in melts or glasses. Yet it is still almost impossible to study the conformational relaxation of a polymer chain in solvent using atomistic simulations. However, in many cases it is not the polymer dynamics that is of interest but the structure and dynamics of the solvent around the chain. Often, the first and maybe second solvation shells dominate the solvation. Two recent examples of aqueous and non-aqueous polymer solutions should illustrate this poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) [31]... 

Because the key operation in studying solvent effects on rates is to vary the solvent, evidently the nature of the solvation shell will vary as the solvent is changed. A distinction is often made between general and specific solvent effects, general effects being associated (by hypothesis) with some appropriate physical property such as dielectric constant, and specific effects with particular solute-solvent interactions in the solvation shell. In this context the idea of preferential solvation (or selective solvation) is often invoked. If a reaction is studied in a mixed solvent. 

Solvatochromic shifts are rationalized with the aid of the Franck-Condon principle, which states that during the electronic transition the nuclei are essentially immobile because of their relatively great masses. The solvation shell about the solute molecule minimizes the total energy of the ground state by means of dipole-dipole, dipole-induced dipole, and dispersion forces. Upon transition to the excited state, the solute has a different electronic configuration, yet it is still surrounded by a solvation shell optimized for the ground state. There are two possibilities to consider ... 

The mixed solvent models, where the first solvation sphere is accounted for by including a number of solvent molecules, implicitly include the solute-solvent cavity/ dispersion terms, although the corresponding tenns between the solvent molecules and the continuum are usually neglected. Once discrete solvent molecules are included, however, the problem of configuration sampling arises. Nevertheless, in many cases the first solvation shell is by far the most important, and mixed models may yield substantially better results than pure continuum models, at the price of an increase in computational cost. 

The mode of extraction in these oxonium systems may be illustrated by considering the ether extraction of iron(III) from strong hydrochloric acid solution. In the aqueous phase chloride ions replace the water molecules coordinated to the Fe3+ ion, yielding the tetrahedral FeCl ion. It is recognised that the hydrated hydronium ion, H30 + (H20)3 or HgO,, normally pairs with the complex halo-anions, but in the presence of the organic solvent, solvent molecules enter the aqueous phase and compete with water for positions in the solvation shell of the proton. On this basis the primary species extracted into the ether (R20) phase is considered to be [H30(R20)3, FeCl ] although aggregation of this species may occur in solvents of low dielectric constant. 

Ions and ion pairs interact strongly with the solvent, and hence an ionic polymerization is greatly influenced by the environment. Solvation tends to separate the ions and thus the system approaches a state which would be expected in a hypothetical solution deprived of gegen ions. At the same time formation of a solvation shell around the growing center probably slows down the addition. This effect is particularly notable in the termination step and will be discussed further in the next section of this paper. 

Without specifying the dimensions and spatial configuration of the solvation shell, we will treat it in terms of its macroscopic characteristic, like of other dielectric materials. First, consider a polar solution, in which the solutes possess a constant dipole moment as is shown in Fig. 4. In each solvate of a solution, the immediate surroundings are polarized due to the dipole moment, /[Pg.201]

The subscripts 1 and g in Equation (6.38) refer to the liquid and gas phases, respectively. The results of the comparison are presented in Table 6.10. If the HO + YH reaction takes place in an aqueous solution and not in the gas phase, the parameter bre and hence the activation energy increase. This is associated with the solvation of the reactants and the need to overcome the solvation shell by the reacting component in order to effect the elementary step. The contribution of AEso is particularly large in the reaction of the hydroxyl radical with aldehydes. 

The vertical excitation energies were calculated for different configurations of a QM/MM trajectory using the approximate ROKS [27] method as well as TDDFT. The effect of the size of the quantum region was tested systematically by including (i) only the solute in the quantum region or (ii) the solute and its first solvation shell (defined as the 12 water molecules closest to the acetone molecule). 

A subject not treated here is the use of distance-dependent effective dielectric constants as a way to take account of the structure in the dielectric medium when a solute is present. This subject has recently been reviewed [120], In the approaches covered in the present chapter, deviations of the effective dielectric constant from the bulk value may be included in terms of physical effects in the first solvation shell, as discussed in Section 2.2. 

Although entropy cannot be strictly localized, some contributing factors to the solvent entropy change induced by the solute are localized in the first solvent shell, and contributions to the entropy of mixing that are proportional to the number of solvent molecules in the first solvation shell might sometimes... 

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