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De Nicola A, Montis C, Donati G, Molinaro A, Silipo A, Balestri A, Berti D, Di Lorenzo F, Zhu YL, Milano G. Bacterial lipids drive compartmentalization on the nanoscale. NANOSCALE 2023; 15:8988-8995. [PMID: 37144495 PMCID: PMC10210972 DOI: 10.1039/d3nr00559c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2023] [Accepted: 04/21/2023] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
The design of cellular functions in synthetic systems, inspired by the internal partitioning of living cells, is a constantly growing research field that is paving the way to a large number of new remarkable applications. Several hierarchies of internal compartments like polymersomes, liposomes, and membranes are used to control the transport, release, and chemistry of encapsulated species. However, the experimental characterization and the comprehension of glycolipid mesostructures are far from being fully addressed. Lipid A is indeed a glycolipid and the endotoxic part of Gram-negative bacterial lipopolysaccharide; it is the moiety that is recognized by the eukaryotic receptors giving rise to the modulation of innate immunity. Herein we propose, for the first time, a combined approach based on hybrid Particle-Field (hPF) Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations and Small Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS) experiments to gain a molecular picture of the complex supramolecular structures of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and lipid A at low hydration levels. The mutual support of data from simulations and experiments allowed the unprecedented discovery of the presence of a nano-compartmentalized phase composed of liposomes of variable size and shape which can be used in synthetic biological applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio De Nicola
- Scuola Superiore Meridionale, Via Largo San Marcellino 10, 80132 Napoli, Italy
- Graduate School of Organic Materials Science, Yamagata, University, Jonan 4-3-16, Yonezawa, Yamagata, 992-8510, Japan
| | - Costanza Montis
- Dipartimento di Chimica "Ugo Schiff", Università degli Studi di Firenze and CSGI, 50019 Firenze, Italy.
| | - Greta Donati
- Department of Chemistry and Biology, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II 132, 84084 Fisciano, SA, Italy
| | - Antonio Molinaro
- Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Napoli Federico II, Complesso Universitario Monte Santangelo, Via Cintia 4, 80126 Napoli, Italy.
| | - Alba Silipo
- Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Napoli Federico II, Complesso Universitario Monte Santangelo, Via Cintia 4, 80126 Napoli, Italy.
| | - Arianna Balestri
- Dipartimento di Chimica "Ugo Schiff", Università degli Studi di Firenze and CSGI, 50019 Firenze, Italy.
| | - Debora Berti
- Dipartimento di Chimica "Ugo Schiff", Università degli Studi di Firenze and CSGI, 50019 Firenze, Italy.
| | - Flaviana Di Lorenzo
- Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Napoli Federico II, Complesso Universitario Monte Santangelo, Via Cintia 4, 80126 Napoli, Italy.
| | - You-Liang Zhu
- State Key Laboratory of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, Institute of Theoretical Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China
| | - Giuseppe Milano
- University of Naples Federico II, Department of Chemical, Materials and Production Engineering, Piazzale V. Tecchio, 80, 80125 Napoli, Italy.
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2
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Bhendale M, Singh JK. Molecular Insights on Morphology, Composition, and Stability of Mixed Micelles Formed by Ionic Surfactant and Nonionic Block Copolymer in Water Using Coarse-Grained Molecular Dynamics Simulations. LANGMUIR : THE ACS JOURNAL OF SURFACES AND COLLOIDS 2023; 39:5031-5040. [PMID: 36992607 DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c00045] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
Abstract
The nanoscale association domains are the ultimate determinants of the macroscopic properties of complex fluids involving amphiphilic polymers and surfactants, and hence, it is foremost important to understand the role of polymer/surfactant concentration on these domains. We have used coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the effect of polymer/surfactant concentration on the morphology of poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO-PPO-PEO, i.e., pluronics or poloxamers) block copolymer, and ionic surfactants sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), mixed micelles in aqueous solution. The proclivity of the surfactant to form the mixed micelles is also probed using umbrella sampling simulations. In this study, we observed that the core of the pluronic + SDS formed mixed micelles consists of PPO, the alkyl tail of SDS, and some water molecules, whereas the PEO, water, and sulfate headgroups of SDS form a shell, consistent with experimental observations. The micelles are spherical at high-pluronic/low-SDS compositions, ellipsoidal at high-SDS/low-pluronic compositions, and wormlike-cylindrical at high-pluronic/high-SDS compositions. The transitions in micelle morphology are governed by the solvent accessible surface area of mixed aggregates, electrostatic repulsion between SDS-headgroups, and dehydration of PEO and PPO segments. The free energy barrier for SDS escape is much higher in mixed micelles than in pure SDS micelles, indicating a stronger tendency for SDS to form pluronic-SDS mixed micelles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mangesh Bhendale
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh 208016, India
| | - Jayant K Singh
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh 208016, India
- Prescience Insilico Private Limited, Fifth Floor, Novel MSR Building, Marathalli, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560037, India
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3
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Schmid F. Understanding and Modeling Polymers: The Challenge of Multiple Scales. ACS POLYMERS AU 2022. [DOI: 10.1021/acspolymersau.2c00049] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Friederike Schmid
- Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Staudingerweg 9, 55128Mainz, Germany
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4
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Bhendale M, Srivastava A, Singh JK. Insights into the Phase Diagram of Pluronic L64 Using Coarse-Grained Molecular Dynamics Simulations. J Phys Chem B 2022; 126:4731-4744. [PMID: 35708274 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.2c02429] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
We investigate the concentration-dependent phase diagram of pluronic L64 in aqueous media at 300 and 320 K using coarse-grained (CG) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The CG model is derived by adapting the Martini model for nonbonded interactions along with the Boltzmann inversion (BI) of bonded interactions from all-atom (AA) simulations. Our derived CG model successfully captures the experimentally observed micellar-, hexagonal-, lamellar-, and polymer-rich solution phase. The end-to-end distance reveals the conformational change from an open-chain structure in the micellar phase to a folded-chain structure in the lamellar phase, increasing the orientational order. An increase in temperature leads to expulsion of water molecules from the L64 moiety, suggesting an increase in L64 hydrophobicity. Thermodynamic analysis using the two-phase thermodynamics (2PT) method suggests the entropy of the system decreases with increasing L64 concentration and the decrease in free energy (F) with temperature is mainly driven by the entropic factor (-TS). Further, the increase in aggregation number at lower concentrations and self-assembly at very high concentrations is energetically driven, whereas the change from the micellar phase to the lamellar phase with increasing L64 concentration is entropically driven. Our model provides molecular insights into L64 phases which can be further explored to design functionality-based suprastructures for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mangesh Bhendale
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh 208016, India
| | - Arpita Srivastava
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh 208016, India
| | - Jayant K Singh
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh 208016, India.,Prescience Insilico Private Limited, Fifth Floor, Novel MSR Building, Marathahalli, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560037, India
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5
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Kazakov AD, Prokacheva VM, Uhlík F, Košovan P, Leermakers FAM. Computer modeling of polymer stars in variable solvent conditions: a comparison of MD simulations, self-consistent field (SCF) modeling and novel hybrid Monte Carlo SCF approach. SOFT MATTER 2021; 17:580-591. [PMID: 33200761 DOI: 10.1039/d0sm01080d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Computer-aided modeling is a systematic approach to grasp the physics of macromolecules, but it remains essential to know when to trust the results and when not. For a polymer star, we consider three approaches: (i) Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations and implementing a coarse-grained model, (ii) the self-consistent field approach based on a mean-field approximation and implementing the lattice model due to Scheutjens and Fleer (SF-SCF) and (iii) novel hybrid Monte Carlo self-consistent field (MC-SCF) method, which combines a coarse-grained model driven by a Monte Carlo method and a mean-field representation driven by SF-SCF. We compare the performance of these approaches under a wide range of solvent qualities. The MD approach is formally the most exact but suffers from reasonable convergence. The mean-field approach works similarly in all solvent qualities but is quantitatively least accurate. The MC-SCF hybrid allows us to combine the benefits of the simulation route and the effective performance of SCF. We consider the center-to-end distance Rce, the radius of gyration Rg2 of the star and the polymer density profiles φ(r) of polymer-segments in it. All three methods show a good qualitative agreement one to another. The MC-SCF method is in good agreement with the scaling predictions in the whole range of solvent quality values showing that it grasps the essential physics while remaining computationally in bounds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander D Kazakov
- Department of Physical and Macromolecular Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Hlavova 8, 128 00 Praha 2, Czech Republic.
| | - Varvara M Prokacheva
- Department of Physical and Macromolecular Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Hlavova 8, 128 00 Praha 2, Czech Republic.
| | - Filip Uhlík
- Department of Physical and Macromolecular Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Hlavova 8, 128 00 Praha 2, Czech Republic.
| | - Peter Košovan
- Department of Physical and Macromolecular Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Hlavova 8, 128 00 Praha 2, Czech Republic.
| | - Frans A M Leermakers
- Department of Agrotechnology and Food Sciences, Wageningen University and Research Center, Wageningen, The Netherlands
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Aggregation of Lipid A Variants: A Hybrid Particle-Field Model. Biochim Biophys Acta Gen Subj 2020; 1865:129570. [PMID: 32105775 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbagen.2020.129570] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2019] [Revised: 02/10/2020] [Accepted: 02/19/2020] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Lipid A is one of the three components of bacterial lipopolysaccharides constituting the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, and is recognized to have an important biological role in the inflammatory response of mammalians. Its biological activity is modulated by the number of acyl-chains that are present in the lipid and by the dielectric medium, i.e., the type of counter-ions, through electrostatic interactions. In this paper, we report on a coarse-grained model of chemical variants of Lipid A based on the hybrid particle-field/molecular dynamics approach (hPF-MD). In particular, we investigate the stability of Lipid A bilayers for two different hexa- and tetra-acylated structures. Comparing particle density profiles along bilayer cross-sections, we find good agreement between the hPF-MD model and reference all-atom simulation for both chemical variants of Lipid A. hPF-MD models of constituted bilayers composed by hexa-acylated Lipid A in water are stable within the simulation time. We further validate our model by verifying that the phase behavior of Lipid A/counterion/water mixtures is correctly reproduced. In particular, hPF-MD simulations predict the correct self-assembly of different lamellar and micellar phases from an initially random distribution of Lipid A molecules with counterions in water. Finally, it is possible to observe the spontaneous formation and stability of Lipid A vesicles by fusion of micellar aggregates.
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7
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Zhao Y, Ma SM, Li B, De Nicola A, Yu NS, Dong B. Micellization of Pluronic P123 in Water/Ethanol/Turpentine Oil Mixed Solvents: Hybrid Particle-Field Molecular Dynamic Simulation. Polymers (Basel) 2019; 11:E1806. [PMID: 31684204 PMCID: PMC6918437 DOI: 10.3390/polym11111806] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2019] [Revised: 10/28/2019] [Accepted: 11/01/2019] [Indexed: 01/30/2023] Open
Abstract
The hybrid particle-field molecular dynamics simulation method (MD-SCF) was applied to study the self-assembly of Pluronic PEO20-PPO70-PEO20 (P123) in water/ethanol/turpentine oil- mixed solvents. In particular, the micellization process of P123 at low concentration (less than 20%) in water/ethanol/turpentine oil-mixed solvents was investigated. The aggregation number, radius of gyration, and radial density profiles were calculated and compared with experimental data to characterize the structures of the micelles self-assembled from P123 in the mixed solvent. This study confirms that the larger-sized micelles are formed in the presence of ethanol, in addition to the turpentine oil-swollen micelles. Furthermore, the spherical micelles and vesicles were both observed in the self-assembly of P123 in the water/ethanol/turpentine oil-mixed solvent. The results of this work aid the understanding of the influence of ethanol and oil on P123 micellization, which will help with the design of effective copolymer-based formulations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying Zhao
- Institute of Nano-photonics, School of Physics and Materials Engineering, Dalian Minzu University, Dalian 116600, China.
| | - Su-Min Ma
- Institute of Nano-photonics, School of Physics and Materials Engineering, Dalian Minzu University, Dalian 116600, China.
- Institute of Theoretical Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China.
| | - Bin Li
- School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China.
| | - Antonio De Nicola
- Department of Organic Materials Science, Yamagata University, 4-3-16 Jonan, Yonezawa, Yamagata-ken 992-8510, Japan.
| | - Nai-Sen Yu
- Institute of Nano-photonics, School of Physics and Materials Engineering, Dalian Minzu University, Dalian 116600, China.
| | - Bin Dong
- Institute of Nano-photonics, School of Physics and Materials Engineering, Dalian Minzu University, Dalian 116600, China.
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8
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Bore SL, Milano G, Cascella M. Hybrid Particle-Field Model for Conformational Dynamics of Peptide Chains. J Chem Theory Comput 2018; 14:1120-1130. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.7b01160] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Sigbjørn Løland Bore
- Department
of Chemistry and Hylleraas Centre for Quantum Molecular Sciences, University of Oslo, P.O.
Box 1033 Blindern, 0315 Oslo, Norway
| | - Giuseppe Milano
- Department
of Organic Materials Science, University of Yamagata, 4-3-16 Jonan
Yonezawa, Yamagata-ken 992-8510, Japan
| | - Michele Cascella
- Department
of Chemistry and Hylleraas Centre for Quantum Molecular Sciences, University of Oslo, P.O.
Box 1033 Blindern, 0315 Oslo, Norway
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9
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Pizzirusso A, De Nicola A, Sevink GJA, Correa A, Cascella M, Kawakatsu T, Rocco M, Zhao Y, Celino M, Milano G. Biomembrane solubilization mechanism by Triton X-100: a computational study of the three stage model. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2017; 19:29780-29794. [DOI: 10.1039/c7cp03871b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
The solubilization mechanism of lipid membranes in the presence of Triton X-100 (TX-100) is investigated at molecular resolution using hybrid particle field–self consistence field simulations.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Antonio De Nicola
- Dipartimento di Chimica e Biologia
- Università di Salerno
- Fisciano
- Italy
| | - G. J. Agur Sevink
- Leiden Institute of Chemistry
- Leiden University
- 2300 RA Leiden
- The Netherlands
| | - Andrea Correa
- Department of Chemical Science
- Federico II University of Naples
- 80126 Napoli
- Italy
| | - Michele Cascella
- Department of Chemistry and Hylleraas Centre for Quantum Molecular Sciences
- University of Oslo
- 0371 Oslo
- Norway
| | | | - Mattia Rocco
- Biopolimeri e Proteomica
- Ospedale Policlinico San Martino
- Genova
- Italy
| | - Ying Zhao
- Institute of Nano-Photonics
- School of Physics and Materials Engineering
- Dalian Minzu University
- Dalian 116600
- China
| | | | - Giuseppe Milano
- Dipartimento di Chimica e Biologia
- Università di Salerno
- Fisciano
- Italy
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10
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Zhu YL, Lu ZY, Milano G, Shi AC, Sun ZY. Hybrid particle–field molecular dynamics simulation for polyelectrolyte systems. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2016; 18:9799-808. [DOI: 10.1039/c5cp06856h] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
An effective hybrid computer simulation method combining molecular dynamics and self-consistent field theory is developed by including electrostatic interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- You-Liang Zhu
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry
- Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Changchun 130022
- China
| | - Zhong-Yuan Lu
- State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials
- Institute of Theoretical Chemistry
- Jilin University
- Changchun 130023
- China
| | - Giuseppe Milano
- Dipartimento di Chimica e Biologia
- Università degli Studi di Salerno
- Fisciano
- Italy
| | - An-Chang Shi
- Department of Physics and Astronomy
- McMaster University
- Hamilton
- Canada
| | - Zhao-Yan Sun
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry
- Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Changchun 130022
- China
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11
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De Nicola A, Kawakatsu T, Rosano C, Celino M, Rocco M, Milano G. Self-Assembly of Triton X-100 in Water Solutions: A Multiscale Simulation Study Linking Mesoscale to Atomistic Models. J Chem Theory Comput 2015; 11:4959-71. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.5b00485] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Antonio De Nicola
- Dipartimento
di Chimica e Biologia, Università di Salerno, I-84084 via
Ponte don Melillo, Salerno, Italy
| | - Toshihiro Kawakatsu
- Department
of Physics, Tohoku University, Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8578, Japan
| | - Camillo Rosano
- Biopolimeri
e Proteomica, IRCCS AOU San Martino-IST, Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro, Largo R. Benzi 10 I-16132 Genova, Italy
| | - Massimo Celino
- ENEA, C.R. Casaccia, Via Anguillarese 301, I-00123 Roma, Italy
| | - Mattia Rocco
- Biopolimeri
e Proteomica, IRCCS AOU San Martino-IST, Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro, Largo R. Benzi 10 I-16132 Genova, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Milano
- Dipartimento
di Chimica e Biologia, Università di Salerno, I-84084 via
Ponte don Melillo, Salerno, Italy
- IMAST S.c.a.r.l.
Technological District in Polymer and Composite Engineering, P. leBovio 22, I-80133, Napoli, Italy
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12
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García Daza FA, Colville AJ, Mackie AD. Mean-field coarse-grained model for poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide) triblock copolymer systems. LANGMUIR : THE ACS JOURNAL OF SURFACES AND COLLOIDS 2015; 31:3596-3604. [PMID: 25746687 DOI: 10.1021/la504884m] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
The microscopic modeling of surfactant systems is of the utmost importance in understanding the mechanisms related to the micellization process because it allows for prediction and comparison with experimental data of diverse equilibrium system properties. In this work, we present a coarse-grained model for Pluronics, a trademarked type of triblock copolymer, from simulations based on a single-chain mean-field theory (SCMF). This microscopic model is used to quantify the micellization process of these nonionic surfactants at 37 °C and has been shown to be able to quantitatively reproduce experimental data of the critical micelle concentration (CMC) along with other equilibrium properties. In particular, these results correctly capture the experimental behavior with respect to the lengths of the hydrophobic and hydrophilic moieties of the surfactants for low and medium hydrophobicities. However, for the more highly hydrophobic systems with low CMCs, a deviation is found which has been previously attributed to nonequilibrium effects in the experimental data (Garcı́a Daza, F. A.; Mackie, A. D. Low Critical Micelle Concentration Discrepancy between Theory and Experiment. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2014, 5, 2027-2032).
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabián A García Daza
- †Departament d'Enginyeria Química, ETSEQ, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Avinguda dels Països Catalans 26, 43007 Tarragona, Spain
| | - Alexander J Colville
- ‡Department of Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115-5000, United States
| | - Allan D Mackie
- †Departament d'Enginyeria Química, ETSEQ, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Avinguda dels Països Catalans 26, 43007 Tarragona, Spain
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García Daza FA, Colville AJ, Mackie AD. Chain architecture and micellization: A mean-field coarse-grained model for poly(ethylene oxide) alkyl ether surfactants. J Chem Phys 2015; 142:114902. [DOI: 10.1063/1.4913960] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
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14
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De Nicola A, Kawakatsu T, Milano G. Generation of Well-Relaxed All-Atom Models of Large Molecular Weight Polymer Melts: A Hybrid Particle-Continuum Approach Based on Particle-Field Molecular Dynamics Simulations. J Chem Theory Comput 2014; 10:5651-67. [PMID: 26583248 DOI: 10.1021/ct500492h] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
A procedure based on Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations employing soft potentials derived from self-consistent field (SCF) theory (named MD-SCF) able to generate well-relaxed all-atom structures of polymer melts is proposed. All-atom structures having structural correlations indistinguishable from ones obtained by long MD relaxations have been obtained for poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) melts. The proposed procedure leads to computational costs mainly related on system size rather than to the chain length. Several advantages of the proposed procedure over current coarse-graining/reverse mapping strategies are apparent. No parametrization is needed to generate relaxed structures of different polymers at different scales or resolutions. There is no need for special algorithms or back-mapping schemes to change the resolution of the models. This characteristic makes the procedure general and its extension to other polymer architectures straightforward. A similar procedure can be easily extended to the generation of all-atom structures of block copolymer melts and polymer nanocomposites.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio De Nicola
- Dipartimento di Chimica e Biologia, Università degli Studi di Salerno , via Ponte don Melillo, Fisciano, Salerno I-84085, Italy.,IMAST Scarl-Technological District in Polymer and Composite Engineering, Piazza Bovio 22, Napoli, Napoli I-80133, Italy
| | - Toshihiro Kawakatsu
- Department of Physics, Tohoku University , Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8578, Japan
| | - Giuseppe Milano
- Dipartimento di Chimica e Biologia, Università degli Studi di Salerno , via Ponte don Melillo, Fisciano, Salerno I-84085, Italy.,IMAST Scarl-Technological District in Polymer and Composite Engineering, Piazza Bovio 22, Napoli, Napoli I-80133, Italy
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15
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De Nicola A, Hezaveh S, Zhao Y, Kawakatsu T, Roccatano D, Milano G. Micellar drug nanocarriers and biomembranes: how do they interact? Phys Chem Chem Phys 2014; 16:5093-105. [DOI: 10.1039/c3cp54242d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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