Molecular origin of anticooperativity in hydrophobic association

The structuring of water molecules in the vicinity of nonpolar solutes is responsible for hydrophobic hydration and association thermodynamics in aqueous solutions. Here, we studied the potential of mean force (PMF) for the formation of a dimer and trimers of methane molecules in three specific configurations in explicit water to explain multibody effects in hydrophobic association on a molecular level. We analyzed the packing and orientation of water molecules in the vicinity of the solute to explain the effect of ordering of the water around nonpolar solutes on many-body interactions. Consistent with previous theoretical studies, we observed cooperativity, manifested as a reduction of the height of the desolvation barrier for the trimer in an isosceles triangle geometry, but for linear trimers, we observed only anticooperativity. A simple mechanistic picture of hydrophobic association is drawn. The free energy of hydrophobic association depends primarily on the difference in the number of water molecules in the first solvation shell of a cluster and that in the monomers of a cluster; this can be approximated by the molecular surface area. However, there are unfavorable electrostatic interactions between the water molecules from different parts of the solvation shell of a trimer because of their increased orientation induced by the nonpolar solute. These electrostatic interactions make an anticooperative contribution to the PMF, which is clearly manifested for the linear trimer where the multibody contribution due to changes in the molecular surface area is equal to zero. The information theory model of hydrophobic interactions of Hummer et al. also explains the anticooperativity of hydrophobic association of the linear trimers; however, it predicts anticooperativity with a qualitatively identical distance dependence for nonlinear trimers, which disagrees with the results of simulations.