CLAYFF Force Field Research Articles

Application of the CLAYFF and the DREIDING Force Fields for Modeling of Alkylated Quartz Surfaces.

To extend applicability and to overcome limitations of combining rules for nonbond potential parameters, in this study, CLAYFF and DREIDING force fields are coupled at the level of atomic site charges to model quartz surfaces with chemisorpt hydrocarbons. Density functional theory and Bader charge analysis are applied to calculate charges of atoms of the OC bond connecting a quartz crystal and an alkyl group. The study demonstrates that the hydrogen atom of the quartz surface hydroxyl group can be removed and its charge can be redistributed among the oxygen and carbon atoms of the OC bond in a manner consistent with the results calculated at the density functional level of theory. Augmented with modified charges of the OC bond, force fields can then be applied to a practical problem of evaluation of the contact angle of a water droplet on alkylated quartz surfaces in a carbon dioxide environment, which is relevant for carbon geo-sequestration and in a broader context of oil and gas recovery. Alkylated quartz surfaces have been shown to be extremely hydrophobic even when the surface density of hydroxyl groups is close to the highest naturally observed density of 6.2 OH groups per square nanometer.

Bulk and surface properties of gypsum: A comparison between classical force fields and dispersion-corrected DFT calculations

A crucial step in atomistic simulations of interfacial phenomena is confirming the thermodynamic consistency of the force field. This can be achieved by investigating the ability of the force field in predicting the bulk and surface properties of all components in the system. In this work, our focus is on the interfacial properties of gypsum, the calcium sulfate dihydrate (CaSO4·2H2O), which is the most abundant calcium sulfate in the earth crust. The performance of classical force fields was tested by comparing their results with those calculated with dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT-D) method as well as experimentally reported data. The DFT-D method implemented to study gypsum and showed a promising performance by reproducing experimentally reported bulk and surface properties. We showed that properties calculated using classical force fields are highly dependent on ionic partial charges. Substituting the original ionic partial charges in the CLAYFF force field with those of the INTERFACE force field improved the calculated bulk and surface properties significantly. CLAYFF with augmented partial charges and INTERFACE force fields showed the best overall performance in reproducing bulk and surface properties of gypsum.

Classical Polarizable Force Field To Study Hydrated Charged Clays and Zeolites

Following our previous works on dry clays, we extend the classical polarizable ion model (PIM) to hydrated dioctahedral clays by considering Na-, Cs-, Ca-, and Sr-montmorillonites in the mono- and bihydrated states. The parameters of the force field are determined by optimizing the atomic forces and dipoles on density functional theory calculations. The simulation results are compared with results obtained with CLAYFF force field and validated in comparison with the experiment. The X-ray diffraction patterns calculated from classical molecular dynamics simulations performed with the PIM force field are in very good agreement with experiments. We also demonstrate the transferability of PIM force field to other aluminosilicates: here, a faujasite-type zeolite compensated with Na⁺ with a significant improvement in cation locations compared to nonpolarizable force fields.

A molecular dynamics framework to explore the structure and dynamics of layered double hydroxides

Abstract It is presented a straightforward procedure based on the CLAYFF force field to perform molecular dynamics (MD) computer simulations with the GROMACS open source package of layered double hydroxide (LDH) materials with different intercalated anions. This procedure enables running very long simulations of systems where all atomic positions are allowed to move freely, while maintaining the integrity of the LDH structure intact. Therefore, it has the potential to model different important applications of LDH involving ion-exchange and interlayer equilibrium processes in diverse areas as drug delivery, water purification, and corrosion protection. The magnesium-aluminium based LDH with a metallic ratio 2:1 (Mg2Al) was chosen to validate our computer simulation framework, because of the comprehensive experimental and computational studies reported in the literature devoted to the understanding of the structure of Mg2Al LDH. Potential parameters from the literature were used to model the Mg2Al LDH with different intercalated anions using a new set of atomic point charges calculated with the DDEC6 formalism. Once the model was validated through careful comparisons of the simulated and experimental structures, the procedure was adapted to the Zn2Al LDH materials. Lennard-Jones parameters had to be developed for zinc (II) cations and calibrated using the experimental structural data found in the literature for Zn2Al LDH and the height of the galleries determined experimentally in this work for Zn2Al with intercalated nitrate anions. The consistency of the model is proved by carrying out MD simulations to reproduce in the computer the typical experimental conditions in which the Zn2Al LDH is immersed in a sodium chloride water solution to act as a nanotrap for aggressive anions in corrosion protection applications. The LDH structure is maintained in the MD simulation in which the LDH is free to move alongside the solution and allowing a natural anion exchange between the LDH and the solution as well as dehydration/hydration of the basal space.

Can carboxymethyl cellulose molecules bind swelling montmorillonite layers in Water?

Sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) molecule binding montmorillonite (MMT) layers in aqueous suspension has been studied in this work. This study was performed through the measurements of adsorption capacity, swelling capacity and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, as well as molecular dynamics simulations. The results have shown that CMC molecules adsorbed on MMT edges through the formation of hydrogen bond with the SiOH. However, the swelling capacity of MMT in water was almost the same in the presence and absence of CMC, meaning that CMC could not bind swelling montmorillonite layers in water. The molecular dynamics simulation with the CLAYFF force field indicated that the adsorption energy of CMC onto MMT edges was much less than that of MMT hydration swelling, which might be attributed to that CMC molecules could not bind swelling montmorillonite layers in water.

Molecular Dynamics Study of the Role of Water in the Carbon Dioxide Intercalation in Chloride Ions Bearing Hydrotalcite

Molecular dynamics simulation was used to study the role of water in the intercalation of CO2 with a model Mg–Al–Cl-hydrotalcite mineral at ambient pressure and temperature. The ClayFF force field was used along with a model Mg–Al–Cl-hydrotalcite containing different amounts of water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) molecules in its interlayer spacing. It was observed that high CO2 content, say 3.85 mmol g–1, could be achieved at low water concentrations or even without the presence of water. However, high water concentrations (e.g., 2 H2O molecules/hydrotalcite unit cell, the maximum allowed water concentration observed experimentally) could also yield similar CO2 content, but in this case, the presence of water led to a significant interlayer spacing expansion (from 23.0 A (no water) to 28.5 A). The expansion was likely due to the change in the orientation distribution of the CO2 molecules. Analyzing the orientation of CO2 molecules revealed that they preferred to orientate parallel to the mineral surface...

Self-Assembly of Alkylammonium Chains on Montmorillonite: Effect of Interlayer Cations, CEC, and Chain Length

Recently, polymeric materials have been filled with synthetic or natural inorganic compounds in order to improve their properties. Especially, polymer clay nanocomposites have attracted both academic and industrial attention. Currently, the structure and physical phenomena of organoclays at molecular level are difficultly explained by existing experimental techniques. In this work, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation was executed using the CLAYFF and CHARMM force fields to evaluate the structural properties of organoclay such as basal spacing, interlayer density, energy and the arrangement of alkyl chains in the interlayer spacing. Our results are in good agreement with available experimental or other simulation data. The effects of interlayer cations (Na+, K+, Ca2+), the cation exchange capacity, and the alkyl chain length on the basal spacing and the structural properties are estimated. These simulations are expected to presage the microstructure of organo-montmorillonite and lead relevant engineering applications.

Assessment of the elastic properties of amorphous calcium silicates hydrates (I) and (II) structures by molecular dynamics simulation

Based on Hamid model of 11Å tobermorite, amorphous calcium silicates hydrates (or C-S-H) structures (Ca4Si6O14(OH)4•2H2O as the C-S-H(I) and (CaO)1.67(SiO2)(H2O)1.75 as the C-S-H(II)) with the Ca/Si ratio of 0.67 and 1.7 are concerned. Then, as the representative ‘globule’ C-S-H, two amorphous C-S-H structures with the size of 5.352 × 4.434 × 4.556 nm3 during the stretch process are simulated at a certain strain rate of 10−3 ps−1 by LAMMPS program for molecular dynamics simulation, using ClayFF force field. The tensile stress–strain curves are obtained and analysed. Besides, elastic modulus of the ‘globule’ C-S-H is calculated to assess the elastic modulus of C-S-H phases (the low-density C-S-H – LD C-S-H – and the high-density C-S-H – HD C-S-H), where the porosity is a critical factor for explaining the relationship between ‘globule’ C-S-H at nanoscale and C-S-H phases at microscale. Results show that: (1) The C-S-H(I) structure has transformed from crystalline to amorphous during the annealing process, Young’s moduli in x, y and z directions are almost the same. Besides, the extent of aggregation and aggregation path for water molecules in the structure is different in three directions. (2) Young’s modulus of both amorphous C-S-H(I) and C-S-H(II) structures with a size of about 5 nm under strain rate of 10−3 ps−1 at 300 K in three directions is averaged to be equal, of which C-S-H(II) structure is about 60.95 GPa thus can be seen as the elastic modulus of the ‘globule’ C-S-H. (3) Based on the ‘globule’ C-S-H, the LD C-S-H and HD C-S-H can be assessed by using the Self-Consistent Scheme (separately 18.11 and 31.45 GPa) and using the Mori–Tanaka scheme (29.78 and 37.71 GPa), which are close to the nanoindentation experiments by Constantinides et al. (21.7 and 29.4 GPa).

Atomistic simulations of cation hydration in sodium and calcium montmorillonite nanopores.

During the last four decades, numerous studies have been directed to the swelling smectite-rich clays in the context of high-level radioactive waste applications and waste-liners for contaminated sites. The swelling properties of clay mineral particles arise due to hydration of the interlayer cations and the diffuse double layers formed near the negatively charged montmorillonite (MMT) surfaces. To accurately study the cation hydration in the interlayer nanopores of MMT, solvent-solute and solvent-clay surface interactions (i.e., the solvation effects and the shape effects) on the atomic level should be taken into account, in contrast to many recent electric double layer based methodologies using continuum models. Therefore, in this research we employed fully atomistic simulations using classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, the software package GROMACS along with the CLAYFF forcefield and the SPC/E water model. We present the ion distributions and the deformation of the hydrated coordination structures, i.e., the hydration shells of Na+ and Ca2+ in the interlayer, respectively, for MMT in the first-layer, the second-layer, the third-layer, the fourth-layer, and the fifth-layer (1W, 2W, 3W, 4W, and 5W) hydrate states. Our MD simulations show that Na+ in Na-MMT nanopores have an affinity to the ditrigonal cavities of the clay layers and form transient inner-sphere complexes at about 3.8 Å from clay midplane at water contents less than the 5W hydration state. However, these phenomena are not observed in Ca-MMT regardless of swelling states. For Na-MMT, each Na+ is coordinated to four water molecules and one oxygen atom of the clay basal-plane in the first hydration shell at the 1W hydration state, and with five to six water molecules in the first hydration shell within a radius of 3.1 Å at all higher water contents. In Ca-MMT, however each Ca2+ is coordinated to approximately seven water molecules in the first hydration shell at the 1W hydration state and about eight water molecules in the first hydration shell within a radius of 3.3 Å at all higher hydration states. Moreover, the MD results show that the complete hydration shells are nearly spherical with an orthogonal coordination sphere. They could only be formed when the basal spacing d001 ≥ 18.7 Å, i.e., approximately, the interlayer separation h ≥ 10 Å. Comparison between DFT and MD simulations shows that DFT failed to reproduce the outer-sphere complexes in the Stern-layer (within ∼5.0 Å from the clay basal-plane), observed in the MD simulations.

Molecular simulations of cement based materials: A comparison between first principles and classical force field calculations

The heterogeneity and complexity of the cement structure and processes makes the interpretation of experimental data challenging. Atomistic simulations allow investigations at the atomic level of interactions, thus having the potential to provide complementary information to experiments. In this regard, the investigation of the transferability of the available force fields as well their ability to predict the properties of interest is an important prerequisite. In this work, we compare CLAYFF force field against first principles Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations focusing on its ability to predict structural, vibrational and thermodynamic properties of cement phases differing in the degree of hydration. The systems studied include tobermorite 9Å, 11Å, 14Å, gypsum, tricalcium aluminate and ettringite. Our results indicate that CLAYFF describes well the lattice parameters within acceptable errors. However for the vibrational properties, there is a significant alteration in the silicate, sulfate, water and OH frequencies in comparison to DFT and experimental results. DFT Bader charge analysis indicate that the charge on the interlayer calcium ions in tobermorite does not change with increase in hydration, implying that the nature inter-atomic bonding within the layers remain unchanged. For the thermodynamic quantities investigated (i.e. Helmholtz free energy, entropy and specific heat), CLAYFF results are in agreement with DFT calculations. Our findings indicate that water enhances the stability of the hydrated phases based on the lower values of the Helmholtz free energy. We demonstrate that CLAYFF can capture consistently the thermodynamic properties of cement phases.

Surface Structure and Stability of Partially Hydroxylated Silica Surfaces.

Surface energies of silicates influence crack propagation during brittle fracture and decrease with surface relaxation caused by annealing and hydroxylation. Molecular-level simulations are particularly suited for the investigation of surface processes. In this work, classical MD simulations of silica surfaces are performed with two force fields (ClayFF and ReaxFF) to investigate the effect of force field reactivity on surface structure and energy as a function of surface hydroxylation. An unhydroxylated fracture surface energy of 5.1 J/m2 is calculated with the ClayFF force field, and 2.0 J/m2 is calculated for the ReaxFF force field. The ClayFF surface energies are consistent with the experimental results from double cantilever beam fracture tests (4.5 J/m2), whereas ReaxFF underestimated these surface energies. Surface relaxation via annealing and hydroxylation was performed by creating a low-energy equilibrium surface. Annealing condensed neighboring siloxane bonds increased the surface connectivity, and decreased the surface energies by 0.2 J/m2 for ClayFF and 0.8 J/m2 for ReaxFF. Posthydroxylation surface energies decreased further to 4.6 J/m2 with the ClayFF force field and to 0.2 J/m2 with the ReaxFF force field. Experimental equilibrium surface energies are ∼0.35 J/m2, consistent with the ReaxFF force field. Although neither force field was capable of replicating both the fracture and equilibrium surface energies reported from experiment, each was consistent with one of these conditions. Therefore, future computational investigations that rely on accurate surface energy values should consider the surface state of the system and select the appropriate force field.

Quantifying the Mechanisms of Site-Specific Ion Exchange at an Inhomogeneously Charged Surface: Case of Cs+/K+ on Hydrated Muscovite Mica

Adsorption and mobility of radioactive Cs+ isotopes in soil are among the most important factors affecting the long-term environmental footprint of nuclear accidents such as Chernobyl (1986) and Fukushima Daiichi (2011). In particular, Cs+ ions can be retained through their exchange with K+ naturally present in muscovite mica, one of the common soil mineral components. The ClayFF force field allowed us to realistically represent local inhomogeneities of the structure, composition, and charge on the muscovite (001) surface and to identify three structurally different types of adsorption sites. We performed molecular dynamics simulations of Cs+ and K+ adsorption at the hydrated muscovite surface and used quasi-one-dimensional site-specific potential of mean force calculations to quantify the energetics of ion exchange in this system for each individual site and for the entire muscovite surface on average. Irrespective of the type of adsorption site, both K+ and Cs+ cations are preferably adsorbed on the bas...

Molecular Dynamics Study of the Interaction of C-S-H and Chloride Ions

Molecular Dynamics was employed to investigate the interaction of calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H), the primary hydration product of cement based materials, and chloride, causing severe durable problems of concrete. The 11Å tobermorite structure was chosen to describe the C-S-H structure and the CLAYFF force field was used. It is observed in the simulation that there are no bound chlorides at 303K, while a fraction of chlorides appear in the adsorption district of tobermorite/solution interface at 323K indicating the temperature increase can improve chloride sorption capacity of C-S-H. The formation of Ca-Cl cluster is found on the surface of tobermorite, which is assumed to promote the chloride sorption. The experimental results of sorption isotherms of C-S-H in CaCl2 and NaCl aqueous solutions with the same chloride concentration have proved this point. Other researchers have made the same conclusion by means of molecular dynamics modeling, NMR tests or zeta potential experiments.

Intercalation of Ethylene Glycol in Smectites: Several Molecular Simulation Models Verified by X-Ray Diffraction Data

AbstractOrgano-clays represent a special challenge for molecular simulations because they require accurate representation of the clay and the organic/aqueous sections of the model system and accurate representation of the interactions between them. Due to the broad range of force-field models available, an important question to ask is which sets of parameters will best suit the molecular modeling of the organo-intercalated smectites? To answer this question, the structure of the ethylene glycol (EG)-smectite complex is used here as a testing model because the intercalation of EG in smectites provides a stable interlayer complex with relatively constant basal spacing.Three smectite samples with substantially different layer charge and charge localization were selected for X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. Their molecular models were built and molecular-dynamics simulations performed using various combinations of the organic force fields (CGenFF, GAFF, CVFF, and OPLS-aa) with ClayFF and INTERFACE force fields used to describe smectites. The simulations covered a range of different EG and water contents. For every structure, the density distribution of interlayer species along the direction perpendicular to the layer plane was calculated and then used to optimize the XRD patterns for these simulated models.A comparison of these results with experimental XRD patterns shows very large discrepancies in the structures and basal spacings obtained for different layer charges as well as for different force fields and their combinations. The most significant factor affecting the accuracy of the calculated XRD patterns was the selection of the clay-mineral force-field parameters. The second important conclusion is that a slight modification of the basal oxygen parameters for non-electrostatic interactions (increase of their effective atomic diameters) may be a simple and straightforward way to improve significantly the agreement between the modeled XRD patterns with experiments, especially for high-charge smectites. Generally, among organic force fields, the least accurate results were obtained with CGenFF. For unmodified ClayFF, its combination with GAFF gave the best results, while the two other sets (OPLS-aa and CVFF) gave the best results in combination with ClayFFmod. The INTERFACE and INTERFACEmod produced much better results for low-charge montmorillonite than for high-charge smectites.

Structure and Dynamics of Water—Smectite Interfaces: Hydrogen Bonding and the Origin of the Sharp O-Dw/O—Hw Infrared Band From Molecular Simulations

AbstractExperimental studies have shown that a sharp, high-frequency IR band at ~3615 cm-1 (in H2O form) and at ~2685 cm-1 (in D2O form) is a common feature for all smectites, and its position correlates with layer charge. In order to explain the molecular origin of this band in terms of total layer charge, charge localization, as well as nature of interlayer cations influencing the position and intensity of this peak, a series of classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations was performed for several smectite models. The smectite layers were described using a modified CLAYFF force field, where the intramolecular vibrations of H2O were described more accurately by the Toukan-Rahman potential. The power spectra of molecular vibrations of hydrogens were calculated for selected sub-sets of interlayer H2O to analyze quantitatively their contribution to the observed spectral features. The statistics of hydrogen bonds in the smectite interlayers were also analyzed to support the spectral calculations.The simulation results demonstrated clearly that only the H2O molecules in close proximity to the smectite surface are responsible for the sharp vibrational band observed. Other hypotheses for the possible origins of this band were considered carefully and eventually rejected. Two orientations of H2O molecules donating one or two H bonds to the basal oxygens of the smectite surface (monodentate and bidentate orientations, respectively) were observed. In both orientations, these H bonds are quite weak, pointing to a generally hydrophobic character of the smectite surface. Both orientations contributed to the high-frequency band, but the monodentate orientation provided the predominant contribution because surface H2O molecules in this orientation were much more abundant. In good agreement with experiment, only a small difference in the peak position was observed between smectites with different charge localization. The effect of the total layer charge, i.e. the red-shift for higher-charge smectites, was also confirmed. This shift arose from the decrease in the H-bonding distances of H2O in monodentate and bidentate orientation.

Mesoscale simulation of clay aggregate formation and mechanical properties

This paper proposes a novel methodology for understanding the meso-scale aggregation of clay platelets in water. We use Molecular Dynamics simulations using the CLAYFF force fields to represent the interactions between two layers of Wyoming montmorillonite (Na-smectite) in bulk water. The analyses are used to establish the potential of mean force at different spacings between the layers for edge-to-edge and face-to-face interactions. This is accomplished by finding the change in free energy as a function of the separation distance between the platelets using thermodynamic perturbation theory with a simple overlap sampling method. These nanoscale results are then used to calibrate the Gay–Berne (GB) potential that represents each platelet as a single-site ellipsoidal body. A coarse-graining upscaling approach then uses the GB potentials and molecular dynamics to represent the meso-scale aggregation of clay platelets (at submicron length scale). Results from meso-scale simulations obtain the equilibrium/jamming configurations for mono-disperse clay platelets. The results show aggregation for a range of clay platelets dimensions and pressures with mean stack size ranging from 3 to 8 platelets. The particle assemblies become more ordered and exhibit more pronounced elastic anisotropy at higher confining pressures. The results are in good agreement with previously measured nano-indentation moduli over a wide range of clay packing densities.

Structure, Energetics, and Dynamics of Cs+ and H2O in Hectorite: Molecular Dynamics Simulations with an Unconstrained Substrate Surface

Classical molecular dynamics simulations were performed for the smectite clay hectorite with charge-balancing Cs+ cations using a newly developed structural model with a disordered distribution of Li/Mg substitutions in the octahedral sheet and the fully flexible CLAYFF force field. Calculations for systems with interlayer galleries containing 0–19 H2O/Cs+ suggest that the monolayer hydrate is the only stable state at all relative humidities at ambient pressure and temperature, in agreement with experimental results and previous molecular calculations. The basal spacing of this structure is also in good agreement with experimental values. In contrast to previous molecular modeling results, however, the new simulations show that interlayer Cs+ occurs on 2 different inner sphere adsorption sites: above the center of ditrigonal cavities and above Si tetrahedra. Unlike previous simulations, which employed a rigid clay model and fixed orientations of the structural −OH groups, the present results are obtained ...

Effect of layer charge on the crystalline swelling of Na+, K+ and Ca2+ montmorillonites: DFT and molecular dynamics studies

AbstractThe swelling and cation exchange properties of montmorillonite are fundamental in a wide range of applications ranging from nanocomposites to catalytic cracking of hydrocarbons. The swelling results from several factors and, though widely studied, information on the effects of a single factor at a time is lacking. In this study, density functional theory (DFT) calculations were used to obtain atomic-level information on the swelling of montmorillonite. Molecular dynamics (MD) was used to investigate the swelling properties of montmorillonites with different layer charges and interlayer cationic compositions. Molecular dynamics calculations, with CLAYFF force field, consider three layer charges (−1.0, −0.66 and −0.5 e per unit cell) arising from octahedral substitutions and interlayer counterions of Na, K and Ca. The swelling curves obtained showed that smaller layer charge results in greater swelling but the type of the interlayer cation also has an effect. The DFT calculations were also seen to predict larger d values than MD. The formation of 1, 2 and 3 water molecular layers in the interlayer spaces was observed. Finally, the data from MD calculations were used to predict the selfdiffusion coefficients of interlayer water and cations in different montmorillonites and in general the coefficient increased with increasing water content and with decreasing layer charge.

Molecular dynamics study on the mechanical properties of Portland cement clinker phases

Recent advances in concrete industry have highlighted the need for accurate knowledge about its nano-structure and mechanical properties. Cement, as the main material of concrete, is of great importance. Additionally, using nano-scale calculation methods have led to better understanding of materials functionalities. In this paper, it is tried to estimate the mechanical properties of cement clinker phases by atomistic simulation and via molecular dynamics method. To achieve this goal, C2S, C3S, C3A, and C4AF were studied as major phases and periclase, calcium oxide, arcanite, aphthitalite, and thenardite were also selected as minor phases. Furthermore, the eight COMPASS, COMPASSII, CLAYFF, Dreiding, Universal, CVFF, PCFF and INTERFACE force fields were used for atomistic simulations. Finally, the bulk modulus, shear modulus, Young’s modulus, Poisson ratio and compressibility properties were calculated by formulas of elasticity theory. Obtained results were compared with those in the pertinent literature. The results revealed that using molecular dynamics method was suitable in estimating mechanical properties of cement phases. These findings might be applied in larger scales and also multi-scale simulations.

MOLECULAR VALIDATED MODEL FOR ADSORPTION OF PROTONATED DYE ON LDH

Hydrotalcite-like compounds are anionic clays of scientific and technological interest for their use as ion exchange materials, catalysts and modified electrodes. Surface phenomenon are important for all these applications. Although conventional analytical methods have enabled progress in understanding the behavior of anionic clays in solution, an evaluation at the atomic scale of the dynamics of their ionic interactions has never been performed. Molecular simulation has become an extremely useful tool to provide this perspective. Our purpose is to validate a simplified model for the adsorption of 5-benzoyl-4-hydroxy-2-methoxy-benzenesulfonic acid (MBSA), a prototype molecule of anionic dyes, onto a hydrotalcite surface. Monte Carlo simulations were performed in the canonical ensemble with MBSA ions and a pore model of hydrotalcite using UFF and ClayFF force fields. The proposed molecular model has allowed us to reproduce experimental data of atomic force microscopy. Influences of protonation during the adsorption process are also presented.