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Updated: Aug 8, 2026

Unraveling Entropic Rate Acceleration Induced by Solvent Dynamics in Membrane Enzymes
Published on: January 16, 2016
Simple model of membrane proteins including solvent
D L Pagan1, A Shiryayev, T P Connor
1Department of Physics, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18015, USA. dlpa2@lehigh.edu
Abstract:
We report a numerical simulation for the phase diagram of a simple two-dimensional model, similar to the one proposed by Noro and Frenkel [J. Chem. Phys. 114, 2477 (2001)] for membrane proteins, but one that includes the role of the solvent. We first use Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo simulations to determine the phase behavior of particles interacting via a square-well potential in two dimensions for various values of the interaction range. A phenomenological model for the solute-solvent interactions is then studied to understand how the fluid-fluid coexistence curve is modified by solute-solvent interactions. It is shown that such a model can yield systems with liquid-liquid phase separation curves that have both upper and lower critical points, as well as closed loop phase diagrams, as is the case with the corresponding three-dimensional model.
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