Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 23, 2026

Computation of Atmospheric Concentrations of Molecular Clusters from ab initio Thermochemistry
Published on: April 8, 2020
Ab initio calculation of electrostatic multipoles with Wannier functions for large-scale biomolecular simulations
Celeste Sagui1, Pawel Pomorski, Thomas A Darden
1Department of Physics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, USA. sagui@unity.ncsu.edu
Abstract:
It has long been known that accurate electrostatics is a key issue for improving current force fields for large-scale biomolecular simulations. Typically, this calls for an improved and more accurate description of the molecular electrostatic potential, which eliminates the artifacts associated with current point charge-based descriptions. In turn, this involves the partitioning of the extended molecular charge distribution, so that charges and multipole moments can be assigned to different atoms. As an alternate to current approaches, we have investigated a charge partitioning scheme that is based on the maximally localized Wannier functions. This has the advantage of partitioning the charge, and placing it around the molecule in a chemically meaningful manner. Moreover, higher order multipoles may all be calculated without any undue numerical difficulties. Tests on isolated molecules and water dimers, show that the molecular electrostatic potentials generated by such a Wannier-function based approach are in excellent agreement with the density functional-based calculations.
More Related Videos
05:37Rapid in-silico Battery Electrolyte Electrochemical Reaction Generation using 3T-VASP Multi-Scale Energy Minimization
Published on: August 22, 2025
10:52Multiscale Sampling of a Heterogeneous Water/Metal Catalyst Interface using Density Functional Theory and Force-Field Molecular Dynamics
Published on: April 12, 2019
Related Concept Videos
Calculations of Electric Potential II
Consider a...
Van der Waals Equation
First, the attractive forces between molecules, which are stronger at higher densities and reduce the pressure, are considered by adding to the pressure a term equal to the square of the molar density multiplied by a positive coefficient a. Second, the volume...
The Van der Waals Equation
Van der Waals Interactions
Calculations of Electric Potential I
The ring is divided into infinitesimal small arcs such that point M is equidistant from all the arcs. Here, the cylindrical coordinate system is used to calculate the electric potential at point M. A general element of the arc between angles θ and θ + dθ is of the length Rdθ and has a charge of λRdθ.
Electrostatic Boundary Conditions in Dielectrics
Consider a case where both the mediums across a boundary are two different dielectric materials. Recall that the electric field and electric displacement are proportional and related through the material's permittivity.