Density maximum and polarizable models of water

To estimate accurately the density of water over a wide range of temperatures with a density maximum at 4 °C is one of the most stringent tests of molecular models. The shape of the curve influences the ability to describe critical properties and to predict the freezing temperature. While it was demonstrated that with a proper parameter fit nonpolarizable models can approximate this behavior accurately, it is much more difficult to do this for polarizable models. We provide a short overview of ρ-T diagrams for existing models, then we give an explanation of this difficulty. We present a version of the BK model [A. Baranyai and P. T. Kiss, J. Chem. Phys. 133, 144109 (2010); and ibid. 135, 234110 (2011)] which is capable to predict the density of water over a wide range of temperature. The BK model uses the charge-on-spring method with three Gaussian charges. Since the experimental dipole moment and the geometry is fixed, and the quadrupole moment is approximated by a least mean square procedure, parameters of the repulsion and dispersive attraction forces remained as free tools to match experimental properties. Relying on a simplified but plausible justification, the new version of the model uses repulsion and attraction as functions of the induced dipole moment of the molecule. The repulsive force increases, while the attractive force decreases with the size of the molecular dipole moment. At the same time dipole moment dependent dispersion forces are taking part in the polarization of the molecule. This scheme iterates well and, in addition to a reasonable density-temperature function, creates dipole distributions with accurate estimation of the dielectric constant of the liquid.