Interfacial structure, thermodynamics, and electrostatics of aqueous methanol solutions via molecular dynamics...

We present results from molecular dynamics simulations of methanol-water solutions using charge equilibration force fields to explicitly account for nonadditive electronic interaction contributions to the potential energy. We study solutions across the concentration range from 0.1 to 0.9 methanol mole fraction. At dilute concentrations, methanol density is enhanced at the liquid-vapor interface, consistent with previous molecular dynamics and experimental studies. Interfacial thickness exhibits a monotonic increase with increasing methanol mole fraction, while surface tensions display monotonic decrease with methanol concentration, in qualitative agreement with experimental data and previous molecular dynamics predictions using polarizable force fields. In terms of interfacial structure, in keeping with predictions of traditional force fields, there is a unique preferential orientation of methanol molecules at the interface. Moreover, there is a free energetic preference for methanol molecules at the interface as evidenced by potential of mean force calculations. The pmf calculations suggest an interfacial state with 0.8 kcal/mol stability relative to the bulk, again in qualitative agreement with previous simulation and experimental studies. Interfacial potentials based on double integration of total charge density range from -610 to -330 mV over the dilute to concentrated regimes, respectively. The preponderance of methanol at the interface at all mole fractions gives rise to a dominant methanol contribution to the total interfacial potential. Interestingly, there is a transition of the water surface potential contribution from negative to positive upon the transition from methanol mole fraction of 0.1 to 0.2. The dipole and quadrupole contributions to the water component of the total interfacial potential are effectively of equal magnitude and opposite sign, thus cancelling one another. We compute the in-plane component of the dielectric permittivity along the interface normal. We observe a nonmonotonic behavior of the methanol in-plane dielectric permittivity that tracks the methanol density profiles at low methanol mole fractions. At higher methanol mole fractions, the total in-plane permittivity is dominated by methanol and displays a monotonic decrease from bulk to vapor. We finally probe the nature of hydration of water in the bulk versus interfacial regions for methanol mole fractions of 0.1 and 0.2. In the bulk, methanol perturbs water structure so as to give rise to water hydrogen bond excesses. Moreover, we observe negative hydrogen bond excess in the vicinity of the alkyl group, as reported by Zhong et al. for bulk ethanol-water solutions using charge equilibration force fields, and positive excess in regions hydrogen bonding to nearest-neighbor methanol molecules. Within the interfacial region, water and methanol density reduction lead to concomitant water hydrogen bond deficiencies (negative hydrogen-bond excess).