Hybrid Particle-Field Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Charged Amphiphiles in Aqueous Environment

14 May 2018, Version 1
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

We develop and test specific coarse-grained models for charged amphiphilic systems such as palmitoyloleoyl phosphatidylglycerol (POPG) lipid bilayer, and sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) surfactant in aqueous environment, to verify the ability of the hybrid particle-field method to provide a realistic description of polyelectrolyte soft-matter systems. The intramolecular interactions are treated by a standard molecular Hamiltonian and the non-electrostatic intermolecular forces are described by density fields. Electrostatics is introduced as an additional external field obtained by a modified particle-mesh Ewald procedure. Molecular dynamics simulations indicate that the methodology is robust with respect to the choice of the relative dielectric constant, yielding the same correct qualitative behavior for a broad range of dielectric values. In particular, our methodology reproduces well the organization of the POPG bilayer, as well as the SDS concentration-dependent change in the morphology of the micelles from spherical to microtubular aggregates.

Keywords

Multi-scale modelling
Coarse grained
self-assembly
lipid-water mixtures

Supplementary materials

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Title
hPF electrostatics SI
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