Solvent-free, molecular-level modeling of self-assembling amphiphiles in water

Aggregation mesophases of self-assembling amphiphiles in water are highly important in the context of biology (biomembranes), therapy (liposomes), industry (polymer surfactants), and condensed-matter physics (lyotropic liquid crystals). Besides helping to increase fundamental understanding of collective molecular behavior, simulations of these lyotropic phases are pivotal to technological and medical developments such as smart drug carriers for gene therapy. Implicit-solvent, coarse-grained, low resolution modeling with a simple pair potential is the key to realizing the larger length and time scales associated with such mesoscopic phenomena during a computer simulation. Modeling amphiphiles by directed, soft, ellipsoidal cores interacting via a computationally simple yet tunable anisotropic pair potential, we have come to such a single-site model amphiphile that can rapidly self-assemble to give diverse lyotropic phases (such as fluid bilayers, micelles, etc.) without requiring the explicit incorporation of solvent particles. The model directly represents a tunable packing parameter that manifests in the spontaneous curvature of the amphiphile aggregates. Besides the all-important hydrophobic interaction, the hydration force is also treated implicitly. Thanks to the efficient solvent-free molecular-level coarse graining, this model is suitable for generic mesoscale studies of phenomena such as self-assembly, amphiphile mixing, domain formation, fusion, elasticity, etc., in amphiphile aggregates.