Solvent-averaged potentials for alkali-, earth alkali-, and alkylammonium halide aqueous solutions

Abstract

We derive effective, solvent-free ion-ion potentials for alkali-, earth alkali-, and alkylammonium halide aqueous solutions. The implicit solvent potentials are parametrized to reproduce experimental osmotic coefficients. The modeling approach minimizes the amount of input required from atomistic (force field) models, which usually predict large variations in the effective ion-ion potentials at short distances. For the smaller ion species, the reported potentials are composed of a Coulomb and a Weeks-Chandler-Andersen term. For larger ions, we find that an additional, attractive potential is required at the contact minimum, which is related to solvent degrees of freedom that are usually not accounted for in standard electrostatics models. The reported potentials provide a simple and accurate force field for use in molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations of (poly-)electrolyte systems.