scholarly journals Origin of the enhanced structural and reorientational relaxation rates in the presence of relatively weak dc electric fields

2004 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 215-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Vegiri

The origin of the dramatic increase of the reorientational and structural relaxation rates of single water molecules in clusters of size N = 16, 32, and 64 at T = 200 K, under the influence of an external, relatively weak electric field (~0.5 107 V/cm) is examined through molecular dynamics simulations. The observed effect is attributed not to any profound structural changes, but to the increase of the size of the molecular cage. The response of water to an electric field in this range shows many similarities with the dynamics of water under low pressure. By referring to simulations and experiments from the literature, we show that in both cases the observed effects are dictated by a common mechanism.

2016 ◽  
Vol 842 ◽  
pp. 453-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Winarto ◽  
Daisuke Takaiwa ◽  
Eiji Yamamoto ◽  
Kenji Yasuoka

Water confined in carbon nanotubes (CNTs) under the influence of an electric field has interesting properties that are potential for nanofluidic-based applications. With molecular dynamics simulations, this work shows that the electric field induces formation of ordered structures of water molecules in the CNTs. Formation of the ordered structures strengthens the electrostatic interaction between the water molecules. As a result, water strongly prefers to fill CNTs over methanol and it produces a separation effect. Interestingly, the separation effect with the electric field does not decrease for a wide range of CNT diameter.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (19) ◽  
pp. 12384-12393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hassan Sabzyan ◽  
Maryam Kowsar

A nano-flow is induced by applying gigahertz rotating electric fields (EFs) of different strengths and frequencies on a carbon nanotorus filled with water molecules, using molecular dynamics simulations.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes P. Dürholt ◽  
Babak Farhadi Jahromi ◽  
Rochus Schmid

Recently the possibility of using electric fields as a further stimulus to trigger structural changes in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) has been investigated. In general, rotatable groups or other types of mechanical motion can be driven by electric fields. In this study we demonstrate how the electric response of MOFs can be tuned by adding rotatable dipolar linkers, generating a material that exhibits paralectric behavior in two dimensions and dielectric behavior in one dimension. The suitability of four different methods to compute the relative permittivity κ by means of molecular dynamics simulations was validated. The dependency of the permittivity on temperature T and dipole strength μ was determined. It was found that the herein investigated systems exhibit a high degree of tunability and substantially larger dielectric constants as expected for MOFs in general. The temperature dependency of κ obeys the Curie-Weiss law. In addition, the influence of dipolar linkers on the electric field induced breathing behavior was investigated. With increasing dipole moment, lower field strength are required to trigger the contraction. These investigations set the stage for an application of such systems as dielectric sensors, order-disorder ferroelectrics or any scenario where movable dipolar fragments respond to external electric fields.


1994 ◽  
Vol 359 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. J. Brabec ◽  
A. Maiti ◽  
C. Roland ◽  
J. Bernholc

ABSTRACTIt has been shown experimentally that the growth of carbon nanotubes in an arc discharge is open-ended. This is surprising, because dangling bonds at the end of open tubes make the closed tube geometry more favorable energetically. Recently, it has been proposed that the large electric fields present at the tip of tube is the critical factor that keeps the tube open. We have studied the effects of the electric field on the growth of the nanotubes via ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. Surprisingly, it is found that the electric field cannot play a significant role in keeping the tubes open, implying that some other mechanism must be important. Extensive studies of the energetics and simulations of the growth of tubes were performed using a threebody Tersoff-Brenner potential. Our results show that there exists a critical diameter of ∼ 3 nm above which a defect-free growth of a straight tubule is possible. Narrower tubes stabilize configurations with adjacent pentagons that lead to tube-closure and termination of the growth. This explains the absence of tube narrower than 2.2 nm in arc discharge experiments.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Raiteri ◽  
Peter Kraus ◽  
Julian Gale

Molecular dynamics simulations of the liquid-liquid interface between water and 1,2-Dichloroethane in the presence of weak external electric fields.<div>The effect of the use of 3D periodic Ewald summation and the effect of the simulation setup are discussed.</div><div>A new simple geometric method for designing the simulation cell is proposed. This method was thoroughly tested shown that it mitigates any artefacts to the use of 3D Ewald summation with external electric field.</div>


2014 ◽  
Vol 937 ◽  
pp. 200-206
Author(s):  
Xiao Gang Li ◽  
Shu Ai Yang ◽  
Ming Jun Tang ◽  
Jing Lei ◽  
Hui Hu ◽  
...  

Various natural contamination components distributed on the surface of high-voltage insulators play important roles on the flashover hazard. Under the low humidity condition, the flashover voltage could be affected considerably by the sucrose contaminations. Molecular dynamics simulations have been carried out in order to reveal the microscopic mechanisms for the sucrose-involved flashover uptake. It is found that the diffusion of ions decreases significantly and thus the conductivity of aqueous medium is lowered apparently. In the presence of sucrose, the contact ion pairs formed between Na+ and Cl- ions are enhanced because both ions are less coordinated to water molecules. The influence of the external electric fields on the diffusion and conductivity were investigated as well. It is suggested that the sucrose contamination might lead to the uneven electric fields on the insulator surface.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Raiteri ◽  
Peter Kraus ◽  
Julian Gale

Molecular dynamics simulations of the liquid-liquid interface between water and 1,2-Dichloroethane in the presence of weak external electric fields.<div>The effect of the use of 3D periodic Ewald summation and the effect of the simulation setup are discussed.</div><div>A new simple geometric method for designing the simulation cell is proposed. This method was thoroughly tested shown that it mitigates any artefacts to the use of 3D Ewald summation with external electric field.</div>


Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (15) ◽  
pp. 3371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Cassone ◽  
Adriano Sofia ◽  
Jiri Sponer ◽  
A. Marco Saitta ◽  
Franz Saija

Intense electric fields applied on H-bonded systems are able to induce molecular dissociations, proton transfers, and complex chemical reactions. Nevertheless, the effects induced in heterogeneous molecular systems such as methanol-water mixtures are still elusive. Here we report on a series of state-of-the-art ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of liquid methanol-water mixtures at different molar ratios exposed to static electric fields. If, on the one hand, the presence of water increases the proton conductivity of methanol-water mixtures, on the other, it hinders the typical enhancement of the chemical reactivity induced by electric fields. In particular, a sudden increase of the protonic conductivity is recorded when the amount of water exceeds that of methanol in the mixtures, suggesting that important structural changes of the H-bond network occur. By contrast, the field-induced multifaceted chemistry leading to the synthesis of e.g., hydrogen, dimethyl ether, formaldehyde, and methane observed in neat methanol, in 75:25, and equimolar methanol-water mixtures, completely disappears in samples containing an excess of water and in pure water. The presence of water strongly inhibits the chemical reactivity of methanol.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes P. Dürholt ◽  
Babak Farhadi Jahromi ◽  
Rochus Schmid

Recently the possibility of using electric fields as a further stimulus to trigger structural changes in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) has been investigated. In general, rotatable groups or other types of mechanical motion can be driven by electric fields. In this study we demonstrate how the electric response of MOFs can be tuned by adding rotatable dipolar linkers, generating a material that exhibits paralectric behavior in two dimensions and dielectric behavior in one dimension. The suitability of four different methods to compute the relative permittivity κ by means of molecular dynamics simulations was validated. The dependency of the permittivity on temperature T and dipole strength μ was determined. It was found that the herein investigated systems exhibit a high degree of tunability and substantially larger dielectric constants as expected for MOFs in general. The temperature dependency of κ obeys the Curie-Weiss law. In addition, the influence of dipolar linkers on the electric field induced breathing behavior was investigated. With increasing dipole moment, lower field strength are required to trigger the contraction. These investigations set the stage for an application of such systems as dielectric sensors, order-disorder ferroelectrics or any scenario where movable dipolar fragments respond to external electric fields.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Marracino ◽  
Daniel Havelka ◽  
Jiří Průša ◽  
Micaela Liberti ◽  
Jack A. Tuszynski ◽  
...  

AbstractIntense pulsed electric fields are known to act at the cell membrane level and are already being exploited in biomedical and biotechnological applications. However, it is not clear if intra-cellular components such as cytoskeletal proteins could be directly influenced by electric pulses within biomedically-attainable parameters. If so, a molecular mechanism of action could be uncovered for therapeutic applications of such electric fields. To help clarify this question, we first identified that a tubulin heterodimer is a natural biological target for intense electric fields due to its exceptional electric properties and crucial roles played in cell division. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we then demonstrated that an intense - yet experimentally attainable - electric field of nanosecond duration can affect the β-tubulin’s C-terminus conformations and also influence local electrostatic properties at the GTPase as well as the binding sites of major tubulin drugs site. Our results suggest that intense nanosecond electric pulses could be used for physical modulation of microtubule dynamics. Since a nanosecond pulsed electric field can penetrate the tissues and cellular membranes due to its broadband spectrum, our results are also potentially significant for the development of novel therapeutic protocols.Author summaryα/β-tubulin heterodimers are the basic building blocks of microtubules, that form diverse cellular structures responsible for essential cell functions such as cell division and intracellular transport. The ability of tubulin protein to adopt distinct conformations contributes to control the architecture of microtubule networks, microtubule-associated proteins, and motor proteins; moreover, it regulates microtubule growth, shrinkage, and the transitions between these states. Previous recent molecular dynamics simulations demonstrated that the interaction of the tubulin protein macrodipole with external electric field modifies orientation and conformations of key loops involved in lateral contacts: as a result, the stability of microtubules can be modulated by such fields. In this study, we seek to exploit these findings by investigating the possibility of fine-tuning the dipolar properties of binding sites of major drugs, by means of the action of electric fields. This may open the way to control tubulin-drug interactions using electric fields, thus modulating and altering the biological functions relative to the molecular vectors of microtubule assembly or disassembly. The major finding of our study reveals that intense (> 20 MV/m) ultra-short (30 ns) electric fields induce changes in the major residues of selected binding sites in a field strength-dependent manner.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document