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Towards a universal method for calculating hydration free energies: a 3D reference interaction site model with
David S Palmer1, Andrey I Frolov, Ekaterina L Ratkova
1Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Inselstrasse 22, DE-04103 Leipzig, Germany.
We developed a simple method to improve hydration free energy calculations using molecular liquid theory. Correcting calculations with partial molar volume significantly enhances accuracy for diverse organic molecules.
Area of Science:
- Computational chemistry
- Physical chemistry
- Molecular modeling
Background:
- Integral equation theory, specifically the 3D reference interaction site model (3D RISM), is used for molecular liquid simulations.
- Accurate calculation of hydration free energies is crucial for understanding molecular behavior in aqueous solutions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a universal and systematic method for improving the accuracy of hydration free energies calculated via 3D RISM.
- To establish a reliable correction method applicable to a wide range of neutral organic molecules.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a dataset of 185 neutral organic molecules across various chemical classes.
- Investigated the correlation between calculated hydration free energies and partial molar volumes.
- Applied a linear empirical correction based on partial molar volume to refine calculated hydration free energies.
Main Results:
- Observed a strong linear correlation between the discrepancy in calculated hydration free energies and the partial molar volume.
- Achieved excellent agreement between corrected hydration free energies and experimental values (R = 0.94, σ = 0.99 kcal/mol) on a test set of 120 molecules.
Conclusions:
- The proposed method offers a simple and effective way to systematically enhance the accuracy of 3D RISM hydration free energy predictions.
- Partial molar volume serves as a valuable parameter for empirical correction, improving the predictive power for molecular solvation.
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