Ion Pairing and Dielectric Decrement in Glycosaminoglycan Brushes

Author(s):  
James Sterling ◽  
Wenjuan Jiang ◽  
Wesley M. Botello-Smith ◽  
Yun L. Luo

Molecular dynamics simulations of hyaluronic acid and heparin brushes are presented that show important effects of ion-pairing, water dielectric decrease, and co-ion exclusion. Results show equilibria with electroneutrality attained through screening and pairing of brush anionic charges by cations. Most surprising is the reversal of the Donnan potential that would be expected based on electrostatic Boltzmann partitioning alone. Water dielectric decrement within the brush domain is also associated with Born hydration-driven cation exclusion from the brush. We observe that the primary partition energy attracting cations to attain brush electroneutrality is the ion-pairing or salt-bridge energy associated with cation-sulfate and cation-carboxylate solvent-separated and contact ion pairs. Potassium and sodium pairing to glycosaminoglycan carboxylates and sulfates consistently show similar abundance of contact-pairing and solvent-separated pairing. In these crowded macromolecular brushes, ion-pairing, Born-hydration, and electrostatic potential energies all contribute to attain electroneutrality and should therefore contribute in mean-field models to accurately represent brush electrostatics.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Sterling ◽  
Wenjuan Jiang ◽  
Wesley M. Botello-Smith ◽  
Yun L. Luo

Molecular dynamics simulations of hyaluronic acid and heparin brushes are presented that show important effects of ion-pairing, water dielectric decrease, and co-ion exclusion. Results show equilibria with electroneutrality attained through screening and pairing of brush anionic charges by cations. Most surprising is the reversal of the Donnan potential that would be expected based on electrostatic Boltzmann partitioning alone. Water dielectric decrement within the brush domain is also associated with Born hydration-driven cation exclusion from the brush. We observe that the primary partition energy attracting cations to attain brush electroneutrality is the ion-pairing or salt-bridge energy associated with cation-sulfate and cation-carboxylate solvent-separated and contact ion pairs. Potassium and sodium pairing to glycosaminoglycan carboxylates and sulfates consistently show similar abundance of contact-pairing and solvent-separated pairing. In these crowded macromolecular brushes, ion-pairing, Born-hydration, and electrostatic potential energies all contribute to attain electroneutrality and should therefore contribute in mean-field models to accurately represent brush electrostatics.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Sterling ◽  
Wenjuan Jiang ◽  
Wesley M. Botello-Smith ◽  
Yun L. Luo

Molecular dynamics simulations of hyaluronic acid and heparin brushes are presented that show important effects of ion-pairing, water dielectric decrease, and co-ion exclusion. Results show equilibria with electroneutrality attained through screening and pairing of brush anionic charges by cations. Most surprising is the reversal of the Donnan potential that would be expected based on electrostatic Boltzmann partitioning alone. Water dielectric decrement within the brush domain is also associated with Born hydration-driven cation exclusion from the brush. We observe that the primary partition energy attracting cations to attain brush electroneutrality is the ion-pairing or salt-bridge energy associated with cation-sulfate and cation-carboxylate solvent-separated and contact ion pairs. Potassium and sodium pairing to glycosaminoglycan carboxylates and sulfates consistently show similar abundance of contact-pairing and solvent-separated pairing. In these crowded macromolecular brushes, ion-pairing, Born-hydration, and electrostatic potential energies all contribute to attain electroneutrality and should therefore contribute in mean-field models to accurately represent brush electrostatics.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Sterling ◽  
Wenjuan Jiang ◽  
Wesley M. Botello-Smith ◽  
Yun L. Luo

<p>Cell-surface polysaccharides are essential to many aspects of physiology, serving as a highly-conserved evolutionary feature of life and as an important part of the innate immune system in mammals. Here, as simplified biophysical models of these sugar-coatings, we present results of molecular dynamics simulations of hyaluronic acid and heparin brushes that show important effects of ion-pairing, water dielectric decrease, and co-ion exclusion. As in prior studies of macromolecular crowding under physiologically-relevant salt concentrations, our results show equilibria with electroneutrality attained through screening and pairing of brush anionic charges by monovalent cations at atomistic detail. Most surprising is the reversal of the Donnan potential obtained from both nonpolarizable and Drude polarizable force fields, in contrast to what would be expected based on electrostatic Boltzmann partitioning alone. Water dielectric decrement within the brush domain is also associated with Born hydration-driven cation exclusion from the brush. We observe that the primary partition energy attracting cations to attain brush electroneutrality is the ion-pairing or salt-bridge energy. Potassium and sodium pairing to glycosaminoglycan carboxylates and sulfates show similar abundance of contact-pairing and solvent-separated pairing. We conclude that in these crowded macromolecular brushes, ion-pairing, Born-hydration, and electrostatic potential energies all contribute to attain electroneutrality and should therefore contribute in mean-field models to accurately represent brush electrostatics. </p>


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.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (15) ◽  
pp. 4326
Author(s):  
Pawel Goj ◽  
Aleksandra Wajda ◽  
Pawel Stoch

Iron-phosphate glasses, due to their properties, have many potential applications. One of the most promising seems to be nuclear waste immobilization. Radioactive 90Sr isotope is the main short-lived product of fission and, due to its high solubility, it can enter groundwater and pose a threat to the environment. On the other hand, Sr is an important element in hard tissue metabolic processes, and phosphate glasses containing Sr are considered bioactive. This study investigated the effect of SrO addition on a glass structure of nominal 30Fe2O3-70P2O5 chemical composition using classical molecular dynamics simulations. To describe the interaction between Sr-O ion pairs, new interatomic potential parameters of the Buckingham-type were developed and tested for crystalline compounds. The short-range structure of the simulated glasses is presented and is in agreement with previous experimental and theoretical studies. The simulations showed that an increase in SrO content in the glass led to phosphate network depolymerization. Analysis demonstrated that the non-network oxygen did not take part in the phosphate network depolymerization. Furthermore, strontium aggregation in the glass structure was observed to lead to the non-homogeneity of the glass network. It was demonstrated that Sr ions prefer to locate near to Fe(II), which may induce crystallization of strontium phosphates with divalent iron.


1990 ◽  
Vol 45 (8) ◽  
pp. 1197-1204 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Bock ◽  
P. Hänel ◽  
H.-F. Herrmann

The radical anion of dimesityltetraketone (ERed, I = -0.40 V) is easily generated in THF by potassium mirror/[2.2.2]-cryptand reduction. Its contact ion pairs with Na⊕, Cs⊕ and Ba⊕⊕ counter cations, prepared in THF solution by single electron transfer from the respective metals, are characterized by their ESR/ENDOR spectra, which exhibit temperature-dependent metal couplings of aNa⊕ = 0.061 mT (190 K), aCs⊕ = 0.021 mT (190 K), and aBa⊕⊕ = 0.145 mT (295 K).


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