Benchmarking Electronic Structure Methods for Accurate Fixed-Charge Electrostatic Models

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Zhou ◽  
Michael Schauperl ◽  
Paul Nerenberg
Keyword(s):  
Electronic Structure ◽  
Gas Phase ◽  
Condensed Phase ◽  
Force Fields ◽  
Dipole Moments ◽  
Fixed Charge ◽  
Basis Set ◽  
Atomic Charges ◽  
Molecular Dipole ◽  
Partial Atomic Charges

<p>The accuracy of classical molecular mechanics (MM) force fields used for condensed phase molecular simulations depends strongly on the accuracy of modeling nonbonded interactions between atoms, such as electrostatic interactions. Some popular fixed-charge MM force fields use partial atomic charges derived from gas phase electronic structure calculations using the Hartree-Fock method with the relatively small 6-31G* basis set (HF/6-31G*). It is generally believed that HF/6-31G* generates fortuitously overpolarized electron distributions, as would be expected in the higher dielectric environment of the condensed phase. Using a benchmark set of 47 molecules we show that HF/6-31G* overpolarizes molecules by just under 10% on average with respect to experimental gas phase dipole moments. The overpolarization of this method/basis set combination varies significantly though and, in some cases, even leads to molecular dipole moments that are lower than experimental gas phase measurements. We further demonstrate that using computationally inexpensive density functional theory (DFT) methods, together with appropriate augmented basis sets and a continuum solvent model, can yield molecular dipole moments that are both more strongly and more uniformly overpolarized. These data suggest that these methods – or ones similar to them – should be adopted for the derivation of accurate partial atomic charges for next-generation MM force fields.<br></p>

Benchmarking Electronic Structure Methods for Accurate Fixed-Charge Electrostatic Models

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Zhou ◽  
Michael Schauperl ◽  
Paul Nerenberg
Keyword(s):  
Electronic Structure ◽  
Gas Phase ◽  
Condensed Phase ◽  
Force Fields ◽  
Dipole Moments ◽  
Fixed Charge ◽  
Basis Set ◽  
Atomic Charges ◽  
Molecular Dipole ◽  
Partial Atomic Charges

<p>The accuracy of classical molecular mechanics (MM) force fields used for condensed phase molecular simulations depends strongly on the accuracy of modeling nonbonded interactions between atoms, such as electrostatic interactions. Some popular fixed-charge MM force fields use partial atomic charges derived from gas phase electronic structure calculations using the Hartree-Fock method with the relatively small 6-31G* basis set (HF/6-31G*). It is generally believed that HF/6-31G* generates fortuitously overpolarized electron distributions, as would be expected in the higher dielectric environment of the condensed phase. Using a benchmark set of 47 molecules we show that HF/6-31G* overpolarizes molecules by just under 10% on average with respect to experimental gas phase dipole moments. The overpolarization of this method/basis set combination varies significantly though and, in some cases, even leads to molecular dipole moments that are lower than experimental gas phase measurements. We further demonstrate that using computationally inexpensive density functional theory (DFT) methods, together with appropriate augmented basis sets and a continuum solvent model, can yield molecular dipole moments that are both more strongly and more uniformly overpolarized. These data suggest that these methods – or ones similar to them – should be adopted for the derivation of accurate partial atomic charges for next-generation MM force fields.<br></p>

Benchmarking Electronic Structure Methods for Accurate Fixed-Charge Electrostatic Models

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Zhou ◽  
Michael Schauperl ◽  
Paul Nerenberg
Keyword(s):  
Electronic Structure ◽  
Gas Phase ◽  
Condensed Phase ◽  
Force Fields ◽  
Dipole Moments ◽  
Fixed Charge ◽  
Basis Set ◽  
Atomic Charges ◽  
Molecular Dipole ◽  
Partial Atomic Charges

<div><div><div><p>The accuracy of classical molecular mechanics (MM) force fields used for condensed phase molecular simulations depends strongly on the accuracy of modeling nonbonded interactions between atoms, such as electrostatic interactions. Some popular fixed-charge MM force fields use partial atomic charges derived from gas phase electronic structure calculations using the Hartree-Fock method with the relatively small 6-31G* basis set (HF/6-31G*). It is generally believed that HF/6-31G* generates fortuitously overpolarized electron distributions, as would be expected in the higher dielectric environment of the condensed phase. Using a benchmark set of 47 molecules, we show that HF/6-31G* does not uniformly overpolarize molecules and in some cases even leads to molecular dipole moments that are lower than experimental gas phase measurements. We further demonstrate that using computationally inexpensive density functional theory (DFT) methods, together with appropriate augmented basis sets and a continuum solvent model, can yield molecular dipole moments that are both more strongly and more uniformly overpolarized. These data suggest that these methods – or ones similar to them – should be adopted for the derivation of accurate partial atomic charges for next-generation MM force fields.</p></div></div></div>

scholarly journals Determining Partial Atomic Charges for Liquid Water: Assessing Electronic Structure and Charge Models

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bowen Han ◽  
Christine Isborn ◽  
Liang Shi
Keyword(s):  
Electronic Structure ◽  
Dipole Moment ◽  
Charge Transfer ◽  
Liquid Water ◽  
Quantum Chemical ◽  
Water Dimer ◽  
Atomic Charges ◽  
Molecular Dipole ◽  
Molecular Dipole Moment ◽  
Partial Atomic Charges

Partial atomic charges provide an intuitive and efficient way to describe the charge distribution and the resulting intermolecular electrostatic interactions in liquid water. Many charge models exist and it is unclear which model provides the best assignment of partial atomic charges in response to the local molecular environment. In this work, we systematically scrutinize various electronic structure methods and charge models (Mulliken, Natural Population Analysis, CHelpG, RESP, Hirshfeld, Iterative Hirshfeld, and Bader) by evaluating their performance in predicting the dipole moments of isolated water, water clusters, and liquid water as well as charge transfer in the water dimer and liquid water. Although none of the seven charge models is capable of fully capturing the dipole moment increase from isolated water (1.85 D) to liquid water (about 2.9 D), the Iterative Hirshfeld method performs best for liquid water, reproducing its experimental average molecular dipole moment, yielding a reasonable amount of intermolecular charge transfer, and showing modest sensitivity to the local water environment. The performance of the charge model is dependent on the choice of the density functional and the quantum treatment of the environment. The computed molecular dipole moment of water generally increases with the percentage of the exact Hartree-Fock exchange in the functional, whereas the amount of charge transfer between molecules decreases. For liquid water, including two full solvation shells of surrounding water molecules (within about 5.5 A of the central water) in the quantum-chemical calculation converges the charges of the central water molecule. Our final pragmatic quantum-chemical charge assigning protocol for liquid water is the Iterative Hirshfeld method with M06-HF/aug-cc-pVDZ and a quantum region cutoff radius of 5.5 A.<br>

scholarly journals Determining Partial Atomic Charges for Liquid Water: Assessing Electronic Structure and Charge Models

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bowen Han ◽  
Christine Isborn ◽  
Liang Shi
Keyword(s):  
Electronic Structure ◽  
Dipole Moment ◽  
Charge Transfer ◽  
Liquid Water ◽  
Quantum Chemical ◽  
Water Dimer ◽  
Atomic Charges ◽  
Molecular Dipole ◽  
Molecular Dipole Moment ◽  
Partial Atomic Charges

Partial atomic charges provide an intuitive and efficient way to describe the charge distribution and the resulting intermolecular electrostatic interactions in liquid water. Many charge models exist and it is unclear which model provides the best assignment of partial atomic charges in response to the local molecular environment. In this work, we systematically scrutinize various electronic structure methods and charge models (Mulliken, Natural Population Analysis, CHelpG, RESP, Hirshfeld, Iterative Hirshfeld, and Bader) by evaluating their performance in predicting the dipole moments of isolated water, water clusters, and liquid water as well as charge transfer in the water dimer and liquid water. Although none of the seven charge models is capable of fully capturing the dipole moment increase from isolated water (1.85 D) to liquid water (about 2.9 D), the Iterative Hirshfeld method performs best for liquid water, reproducing its experimental average molecular dipole moment, yielding a reasonable amount of intermolecular charge transfer, and showing modest sensitivity to the local water environment. The performance of the charge model is dependent on the choice of the density functional and the quantum treatment of the environment. The computed molecular dipole moment of water generally increases with the percentage of the exact Hartree-Fock exchange in the functional, whereas the amount of charge transfer between molecules decreases. For liquid water, including two full solvation shells of surrounding water molecules (within about 5.5 A of the central water) in the quantum-chemical calculation converges the charges of the central water molecule. Our final pragmatic quantum-chemical charge assigning protocol for liquid water is the Iterative Hirshfeld method with M06-HF/aug-cc-pVDZ and a quantum region cutoff radius of 5.5 A.<br>

scholarly journals A Simple Method for Including Polarization Effects in Solvation Free Energy Calculations When Using Fixed-Charge Force Fields: Alchemically Polarized Charges.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Braden Kelly ◽  
William Smith
Keyword(s):  
Free Energy ◽  
Electronic Structure ◽  
Force Fields ◽  
Free Energy Calculations ◽  
Fixed Charge ◽  
Basis Sets ◽  
Hydration Free Energy ◽  
Simple Method ◽  
Test Set ◽  
Partial Charges

<div><div>The incorporation of polarizability in classical force-field molecular simulations is an ongoing area of research. We focus here on its application to hydration free energy simulations of organic molecules. In contrast to computationally complex approaches involving the development of explicitly polarizable force fields, we present herein a simple methodology for incorporating polarization into such simulations using standard fixed-charge force-fields, which we call the Alchemically Polarized Charges (APolQ) method. APolQ employs a standard classical alchemical free energy change simulation to calculate the free energy difference between a fully polarized solute particle in a condensed phase and its unpolarized state in a vacuum. One electronic structure (ES) calculation to of the electron densities is required for each state: for the former, we use a Polarizable Continuum Model (PCM), and for the latter we use vacuum-phase electronic structure calculations.</div><div><br></div><div>We applied APolQ to hydration free energy data for a test set of 45 neutral solute molecules in the FreeSolv database, and compared results obtained using three different water models (SPC/E, TIP3P, OPC3) and using MBIS and RESP partial charge methodologies. ES calculations were carried out at the MP2 level of theory and with cc-pVTZ and aug-cc-pVTZ basis sets. In comparison with AM1-BCC, we found that APolQ outperforms it for the test set. Despite our method using default GAFF parameters, the MBIS partial charges yield Absolute Average Deviations (AAD) 1.5 to 1.9 kJ·mol<sup>−1</sup> lower than AM1-BCC.</div><div><br></div><div>We conjecture that this method can be further improved by fitting the Lennard-Jones and torsional parameters to partial charges derived using MBIS or RESP methodologies. </div></div>

Electrostatically embedded many-body method for dipole moments, partial atomic charges, and charge transfer

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (21) ◽  
pp. 7669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah R. Leverentz ◽  
Katie A. Maerzke ◽  
Samuel J. Keasler ◽  
J. Ilja Siepmann ◽  
Donald G. Truhlar
Keyword(s):  
Charge Transfer ◽  
Dipole Moments ◽  
Atomic Charges ◽  
Many Body ◽  
Partial Atomic Charges ◽  
Body Method

VESCF-MO studies of molecules containing atoms from the second row of the Periodic Table. II. Properties of the fluorides of silicon, phosphorus, sulphur, and chlorine for a minimal basis set excluding 3d-orbitals

1968 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 2605 ◽  
Author(s):  
RD Brown ◽  
JB Peel
Keyword(s):  
Electronic Structure ◽  
Electronic Structures ◽  
Periodic Table ◽  
Central Atom ◽  
Dipole Moments ◽  
Coulomb Repulsion ◽  
Basis Set ◽  
Orbital Method ◽  
Molecular Orbital Method ◽  
Minimal Basis

A study has been made of the electronic structures of the fluorides of silicon, phosphorus, sulphur, and chlorine by the VESCF molecular-orbital method with a minimal basis set, not including 3d-orbitals on the central atom. It proves possible to understand variations in bond lengths and charges on fluorine ligands, dipole moments, force constants, and some n.q.r. data. The calculations are found to be sensitive to assumptions about scaling factors for monocentric coulomb repulsion integrals and penetration integrals. We have not discovered any justification for including 3d-orbitals in the description of the electronic structure of these molecules.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document