Molecular simulation study of the microstructures and properties of pyridinium ionic liquid[HPy][BF_(4)]mixed with acetonitrile

The microstructures and thermodynamic properties of mixed systems comprising pyridinium ionic liquid[HPy][BF_(4)]and acetonitrile at different mole fractions were studied using molecular dynamics simulation in this work.The following properties were determined:density,self-diffusion coefficient,excess molar volume,and radial distribution function.The results show that with an increase in the mole fraction of[HPy][BF_(4)],the self-diffusion coefficient decreases.Additionally,the excess molar volume initially decreases,reaches a minimum,and then increases.The rules of radial distribution functions(RDFs)of characteristic atoms are different.With increasing the mole fraction of[HPy][BF_(4)],the first peak of the RDFs of HA1-F decreases,while that of CT6-CT6 rises at first and then decreases.This indicates that the solvent molecules affect the polar and non-polar regions of[HPy][BF_(4)]differently.

Atomic-scale insights into microscopic mechanisms of grain boundary segregation in Al−Cu alloys

This study aims to clarify the mechanisms for the grain boundary(GB)segregation through investigating the absorption of excess solute atoms at GBs in Al−Cu alloys by using the hybrid molecular dynamics/Monte Carlo simulations.Two segregation mechanisms,substitutional and interstitial mechanisms,are observed.The intergranular defects,including dislocations,steps and vacancies,and the intervals in structural units are conductive to the prevalence of interstitial mechanism.And substitutional mechanism is favored by the highly ordered twin GBs.Furthermore,the two mechanisms affect the GB structure differently.It is quantified that interstitial mechanism is less destructive to GB structure than substitutional one,and often leads to a segregation level being up to about 6 times higher than the latter.These findings contribute to atomic scale insights into the microscopic mechanisms about how solute atoms are absorbed by GB structures,and clarify the correlation among intergranular structures,segregation mechanisms and kinetics.

Ab initio molecular dynamics simulation reveals the influence of entropy effect on Co@BEA zeolite-catalyzed dehydrogenation of ethane

The C–H bond activation in alkane dehydrogenation reactions is a key step in determining the reaction rate.To understand the impact of entropy,we performed ab initio static and molecular dynamics free energy simulations of ethane dehydrogenation over Co@BEA zeolite at different temperatures.AIMD simulations showed that a sharp decrease in free energy barrier as temperature increased.Our analysis of the temperature dependence of activation free energies uncovered an unusual entropic effect accompanying the reaction.The unique spatial structures around the Co active site at different temperatures influenced both the extent of charge transfer in the transition state and the arrangement of 3d orbital energy levels.We provided explanations consistent with the principles of thermodynamics and statistical physics.The insights gained at the atomic level have offered a fresh interpretation of the intricate long-range interplay between local chemical reactions and extensive chemical environments.

Structure-controlled slow dynamics in Al−Mg melts

Molecular dynamics simulation was employed to investigate the dynamical and structural properties of Al−Mg melts with the Al concentration systematically changed.The results show that the viscosity of Al67Mg33 abnormally surpasses that of Al85Mg15 below 550 K,inconsistent with the tendency at high temperatures.The evolution of the icosahedral order population is found to account for this dynamic behavior.Structural analysis shows a preferred bonding between Al and Mg atoms in the nearest neighbor shells,while a repelling tendency between them in the second shells,leading to the prepeak emergence in the partial static structure factors.The formation of icosahedral clusters is constrained in the Al-rich compositions because of the lack of sufficient Mg atoms to stabilize the clusters geometrically.These results demonstrate the structural consequence through the interplay between geometric packing and chemical interaction.These findings are crucial to understanding the structure−dynamic properties in Al−Mg melts.

Theoretical insights into oxygen reduction reaction on Au-based single-atom alloy cluster catalysts

Developing highly active alloy catalysts that surpass the performance of platinum group metals in the oxygen reduction reaction(ORR)is critical in electrocatalysis.Gold-based single-atom alloy(AuSAA)clusters are gaining recognition as promising alternatives due to their potential for high activity.However,enhancing its activity of AuSAA clusters remains challenging due to limited insights into its actual active site in alkaline environments.Herein,we studied a variety of Au_(54)M_(1) SAA cluster catalysts and revealed the operando formed MO_(x)(OH)_(y) complex acts as the crucial active site for catalyzing the ORR under the basic solution condition.The observed volcano plot indicates that Au_(54)Co_(1),Au_(54)M_(1),and Au_(54)Ru_(1) clusters can be the optimal Au_(54)M_(1) SAA cluster catalysts for the ORR.Our findings offer new insights into the actual active sites of AuSAA cluster catalysts,which will inform rational catalyst design in experimental settings.

Temperature-Induced Unfolding Pathway of Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B:Insights from Circular Dichroism and Molecular Dynamics Simulation

In this study,circular dichroism(CD)and molecular dynamics(MD)simulation were used to investigate the thermal unfolding pathway of staphylococcal enterotoxin B(SEB)at temperatures of 298–371 and 298–500 K,and the relationship between the experimental and simulation results were explored.Our computational findings on the secondary structure of SEB showed that at room temperature,the CD spectroscopic results were highly consistent with the MD results.Moreover,under heating conditions,the changing trends of helix,sheet and random coil obtained by CD spectral fitting were highly consistent with those obtained by MD.In order to gain a deeper understanding of the thermal stability mechanism of SEB,the MD trajectories were analyzed in terms of root mean square deviation(RMSD),secondary structure assignment(SSA),radius of gyration(R_(g)),free energy surfaces(FES),solvent-accessible surface area(SASA),hydrogen bonds and salt bridges.The results showed that at low heating temperature,domain Ⅰ without loops(omitting the mobile loop region)mainly relied on hydrophobic interaction to maintain its thermal stability,whereas the thermal stability of domain Ⅱ was mainly controlled by salt bridges and hydrogen bonds.Under high heating temperature conditions,the hydrophobic interactions in domain Ⅰ without loops were destroyed and the secondary structure was almost completely lost,while domain Ⅱ could still rely on salt bridges as molecular staples to barely maintain the stability of the secondary structure.These results help us to understand the thermodynamic and kinetic mechanisms that maintain the thermal stability of SEB at the molecular level,and provide a direction for establishing safer and more effective food sterilization processes.

Synthesis of polyfarnesene based on aqueous free-radical polymerization and molecular dynamics simulation of its properties

Farnesene monomer,obtained through the bio-fermentation,offered a unique long side chain structure that served as an excellent platform for the synthesis of“bottlebrush-like”polymers with exceptional thermal properties.Such polymers had immense potential in the production of polyurethane elastomers and adhesives.Hydroxyl-terminated polyfarnesene(PFD),which was safe,environmentally-friendly and pollution-free,was synthesized with farnesene as the monomer and industrial grade product hydrogen peroxide as the initiator by aqueous free-radical polymerization.

Cooling rate dependence of polymorph selection during rapid solidification of liquid metal zinc

The polymorph selection during rapid solidification of zinc melt was investigated by molecular dynamics simulation. Several methods including g（r）, energy, CNS, basic cluster and visualization were used to analyze the results. The results reveal that the cooling rate has no observable effect on the microstructure as TTc（Tc is the onset temperature of crystallization）; and at the first stage of crystallization, although microstructures are different, the morphologies of nucleus are similar, which are composed of HCP and FCC layers; the polymorph selection of cooling rate finally takes place at the second stage of crystallization： at a high cooling rate, the rapid increase of FCC atoms leads to a FCC crystal mixed with less HCP structures; while at a low cooling rate, HCP atoms grow at the expense of FCC atoms, resulting in an almost perfect HCP phase. The results reveal that the cooling rate is one of the important factors for polymorph selection.

Molecular dynamics simulation of relationship between local structure and dynamics during glass transition of Mg_7Zn_3 alloy

The rapid solidification process of Mg7Zn3 alloy was simulated by the molecular dynamics method. The relationship between the local structure and the dynamics during the liquid-glass transition was deeply investigated. It was found that the Mg-centered FK polyhedron and the Zn-centered icosahedron play a critical role in the formation of Mg7Zn3 metallic glass. The self-diffusion coefficients of Mg and Zn atoms deviate from the Arrhenius law near the melting temperature and then satisfy the power law. According to the time correlation functions of mean-square displacement, incoherent intermediate scattering function and non-Gaussian parameter, it was found that the β-relaxation in Mg7Zn3 supercooled liquid becomes more and more evident with decreasing temperature, and the α-relaxation time rapidly increases in the VFT law. Moreover, the smaller Zn atom has a faster relaxation behavior than the Mg atom. Some local atomic structures with short-range order have lower mobility, and they play a critical role in the appearance of cage effect in theβ-relaxation regime. The dynamics deviates from the Arrhenius law just at the temperature as the number of local atomic structures begins to rapidly increase. The dynamic glass transition temperature （Tc） is close to the glass transition point in structure （TgStr）.

Simulation study on non-linear effects of initial melt temperatures on microstructures during solidification process of liquid Mg_7Zn_3 alloy

The non-linear effects of different initial melt temperatures on the microstructure evolution during the solidification process of liquid Mg7Zn3 alloys were investigated by molecular dynamics simulation, The microstructure transformation mechanisms were analyzed by several methods. The system was found to be solidified into amorphous structures from different initial melt temperatures at the same cooling rate of 1×10^12 K/s, and the 1551 bond-type and the icosahedron basic cluster （12 0 12 0 ） played a key role in the microstructure transition. Different initial melt temperatures had significant effects on the final microstructures. These effects only can be clearly observed below the glass transition temperature Tg; and these effects are non-linearly related to the initial melt temperatures, and fluctuated in a certain range. However, the changes of the average atomic energy of the systems are still linearly related with the initial melt temperatures, namely, the higher the initial melt temperature is, the more stable the amorphous structure is and the stronger the glass forming ability will be.

Formation and evolution characteristics of bcc phase during isothermal relaxation processes of supercooled liquid and amorphous metal Pb

The formation and evolution characteristics of bcc phase during the isothermal relaxation processes for supercooled-liquid and amorphous Pb were investigated by molecular dynamics simulation and cluster-type index method （CTIM）. It is found that during the relaxation process, the formation and evolution of bcc phase are closely dependent on the initial temperature and structure. During the simulation time scale, when the initial temperature is in the range of supercooled liquid region, the bcc phase can be formed and kept a long time; while it is in the range of glassy region, the bcc phase can be formed at first and then partially transformed into hcp phase; when it decreases to the lower one, the hcp and fcc phases can be directly transformed from the glassy structure without undergoing the metastable bcc phase. The Ostwald＇s ＂step rule＂ is impactful during the isothermal relaxation process of the supercooled and glassy Pb, and the metastable bcc phase plays an important role in the precursor of crystallization.

Atomistic simulation of thermal effects and defect structures during nanomachining of copper

Molecular dynamics （MD） simulations of monocrystalline copper （100） surface during nanomachining process were performed based on a new 3D simulation model. The material removal mechanism and system temperature distribution were discussed. The simulation results indicate that the system temperature distribution presents a roughly concentric shape, a steep temperature gradient is observed in diamond cutting tool, and the highest temperature is located in chip. Centrosymmetry parameter method was used to monitor defect structures. Dislocations and vacancies are the two principal types of defect structures. Residual defect structures impose a major change on the workpiece physical properties and machined surface quality. The defect structures in workpiece are temperature dependent. As the temperature increases, the dislocations are mainly mediated from the workpiece surface, while the others are dissociated into point defects. The relatively high cutting speed used in nanomachining results in less defect structures, beneficial to obtain highly machined surface quality.

Molecular Dynamics Study on Configuration Energy and Radial Distribution Functions of Ammonium Dihydrogen Phosphates Solution

Molecular dynamics simulations were carried out to study the configuration energy and radial distribution functions of mmonium dihydrogen phosphate solution at different temperatures. The dihydrogen phosphate ion was treated as a seven-site model and the ammonium ion was regarded as a five-site model, while a simple-point-charge model for water molecule. An unusually local particle number density fluctuation was observed in the system at saturation temperature. It can be found that the potential energy increases slowly with the temperature from 373 K to 404 K, which indicates that the ammonium dihydrogen phosphate has partly decomposed. The radial distribution function between the hydrogen atom of ammonium cation and the oxygen atom of dihydrogen phosphate ion at three different temperatures shows obvious difference, which indicates that the average H-bond number changes obviously with the temperature. The temperature has an influence on the combination between hydrogen atoms and phosphorus atoms of dihydrogen phosphate ion and there are much more growth units at saturated solutions.

Molecular dynamics study on temperature and strain rate dependences of mechanical tensile properties of ultrathin nickel nanowires

Based on the EAM potential, a molecular dynamics study on the tensile properties of ultrathin nickel nanowires in the （100〉 orientation with diameters of 3.94, 4.95 and 5.99 nm was presented at different temperatures and strain rates. The temperature and strain rate dependences of tensile properties were investigated. The simulation results show that the elastic modulus and the yield strength are gradually decreasing with the increase of temperature, while with the increase of the strain rate, the stress--strain curves fluctuate more intensely and the ultrathin nickel nanowires rupture at one smaller and smaller strain. At an ideal temperature of 0.01 K, the yield strength of the nanowires drops rapidly with the increase of strain rate, and at other temperatures the strain rate has a little influence on the elastic modulus and the yield strength. Finally, the effects of size on the tensile properties of ultrathin nickel nanowires were briefly discussed.

Simulation of formation and evolution of nano-clusters during rapid solidification of liquid Ca_(70)Mg_(30) alloy

A molecular dynamics simulation study was performed to investigate the formation and evolution mechanisms of nano-clusters during the rapid solidification of liquid CaToMg30 alloy. The cluster-type index method （CTIM） was adopted to describe microstructure evolutions of nano-clusters during solidification. Results indicate that amorphous structure is mainly formed with three bond-types of 1551, 1541 and 1431 at the cooling rate of 5~1011 K/S, and glass transition temperature Tg is about 530 K; the icosahedron cluster of （12 0 12 0） plays a key role in formation of amorphous structure, and smaller Mg atoms are much more probable to be central atoms of icosahedron clusters; and nano-clusters are mainly formed by combining medium-size clusters. Interestingly, it was also found that formation and evolution processes of the nano-cluster display a three-stage feature which is analogous to crystallization process of amorphous alloy.

Local structure of calcium silicate melts from classical molecular dynamics simulation and a newly constructed thermodynamic model

The distributions of local structural units of calcium silicate melts were quantified by means of classical molecular dynamics simulation and a newly constructed structural thermodynamic model. The distribution of five kinds of Si-O tetrahedra Qi from these two methods was compared with each other and also with the experimental Raman spectra, an excellent agreement was achieved. These not only displayed the panorama distribution of microstructural units in the whole composition range, but also proved that the thermodynamic model is suitable for the utilization as the subsequent application model of spectral experiments for the thermodynamic calculation. Meanwhile, the five refined regions mastered by different disproportionating reactions were obtained. Finally, the distributions of two kinds of connections between Qi were obtained, denoted as Qi-Ca-Qj and Qi-[Ob]-Qj, from the thermodynamic model, and a theoretical verification was given that the dominant connections for any composition are equivalent connections.

CFD-supported optimization of flow distribution in quench tank for heat treatment of A357 alloy large complicated components

The flow distribution in quench tank for heat treatment of A357 alloy large complicated components was simulated using FLUENT computational fluid dynamics（CFD） software.The flow velocity and the uniformity of flow field in two types of quench tanks（with or without agitation system） were calculated.The results show that the flow field in the quench tank without agitation system has not evident regularity.While as for the quench tank with agitation system,the flow fields in different parameters have certain regularity.The agitation tanks have a distinct advantage over the system without agitation.Proper process parameters were also obtained.Finally,the tank model established in this work was testified by an example from publication.This model with high accuracy is able to optimize the tank structures and can be helpful for industrial production and theoretical investigation in the fields of heat treatment of large complicated components.

Anisotropy of Thermal-expansion for β-Octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine： Quantum Chemistry Calculation and Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Molecular dynamics simulations on octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine （HMX） at 303-383 K and atmospheric pressure are carried out under NPT ensemble and COMPASS force field, the equilibrium structures at elevated temperatures were obtained and showed that the stacking style of molecules don＇t change. The coefficient of thermal expansion （CTE） values were calculated by linear fitting method. The results show that the CTE values are close to the experimental results and show anisotropy. The total energies of HMX cells with separately increasing expansion rates （100%-105%） along each crystallographic axis was calculated by periodic density functional theory method, the results of the energy change rates are anisotropic, and the correlation equations of energy change-CTE values are established. Thus the hypostasis of the anisotropy of HMX crystal＇s thermal expansion, the determinate molecular packing style, is elucidated.

Molecular Dynamic Simulation of Melting Points of Trans-1,4,5,8- tetranitro-1,4,5,8-tetraazadacalin （TNAD） with Some Propellants

Molecular dynamic simulation was employed to predict the melting points Tm of TNAD/HMX, TNAD/RDX, TNAD/DINA, and TNAD/DNP systems （tans-1,4,5,8- tetranitro-1,4,5,8-tetraazadacalin （TNAD）, dinitropiperazine （DNP）, cyclotetramethylenetetranitroamine （HMX）, cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine （RDX）, and N-nitrodihydroxyethylaminedinitrate （DINA））. Tm was determined from the inflexion point on the curve of mean specific volume vs. temperature. The result shows that the Tm values of TNAD/HMX, TNAD/RDX, and TNAD/DINA systems are 500, 536, and 488 K, respectively. The TNAD/DNP system has no obvious Tm value, which shows the system is insoluble. Using Tm, the solubility of the four systems was analyzed. The radial distribution functions of the four systems were analyzed and the main intermolecular forces between TNAD and other energetic components are short-range interactions. The better the solubility is, the stronger the intermoleenlar interaction is. In addition, the force field energy at different temperature was also analyzed to predict Tm of the four systems.

铱单晶纳米线在不同应力状态下的变形行为

基于分子动力学模拟方法计算了铱单晶纳米线在室温下的拉伸和压缩变形行为。计算结果表明,铱单晶纳米线在拉伸和压缩时的力学性能均存在尺寸效应。铱单晶纳米线的拉伸和压缩变形行为具有非对称性,在拉伸条件下其伸长率为14%,而在压缩条件下表现出较好的塑性,在压缩过程中有堆垛层错产生,压缩应变达到0.499后模型还未发生断裂。