Journal of Physical Chemistry A, Vol.114, No.12, 4334-4339, 2010
QM/MM MD Simulations of Iodide Ion (I-) in Aqueous Solution: A Delicate Balance between Ion-Water and Water-Water H-Bond Interactions
The characteristics of an iodide ion (I-) in aqueous solution were investigated by means of HF/MM and B3LYP/MM molecular dynamics simulations, in which the ion and its surrounding water molecules were treated at HF and B3LYP levels using the LANL2DZdp and D95 V+ basis sets for I- and water, respectively. According to both the HF/MM and B3LYP/MM results, the ion-water interactions are relatively weak, compared to the water-water hydrogen bonds, thus causing an unstructured nature of the hydration shell. Comparing the HF and B3LYP treatments for the description of this hydrated ion, the overestimation of the ion-water hydrogen-bond strength by the B3LYP method is recognizable, yielding a remarkably more compact and too rigid ion-water complex.