Simulating hydrogen-bond clustering and phase behaviour of imidazole oligomers

Abstract

We have modelled structures and dynamics of hydrogen bond networks that form from imidazoles tethered to oligomeric aliphatic backbones in crystalline and glassy phases. We have studied the behaviour of oligomers containing 5 or 10 imidazole groups. These systems have been simulated over the range 100–900 K with constant-pressure molecular dynamics using the AMBER 94 forcefield, which was found to show good agreement with ab initio calculations on hydrogen bond strengths and imidazole rotational barriers. Hypothetical crystalline solids formed from packed 5-mers and 10-mers melt above 600 K, then form glassy solids upon cooling. Viewing hydrogen bond networks as clusters, we gathered statistics on cluster sizes and percolating pathways as a function of temperature, for comparison with the same quantities extracted from neat imidazole liquid. We have found that, at a given temperature, the glass composed of imidazole 5-mers shows the same hydrogen bond mean cluster size as that from the 10-mer glass, and that this size is consistently larger than that in liquid imidazole. Hydrogen bond clusters were found to percolate across the simulation cell for all glassy and crystalline solids, but not for any imidazole liquid. The apparent activation energy associated with hydrogen bond lifetimes in these glasses (9.3 kJ mol−1) is close to that for the liquid (8.7 kJ mol−1), but is substantially less than that in the crystalline solid (13.3 kJ mol−1). These results indicate that glassy oligomeric solids show a promising mixture of extended hydrogen bond clusters and liquid-like dynamics.