Nature Communications (Sep 2024)

Implementing reactivity in molecular dynamics simulations with harmonic force fields

  • Jordan J. Winetrout,
  • Krishan Kanhaiya,
  • Joshua Kemppainen,
  • Pieter J. in ‘t Veld,
  • Geeta Sachdeva,
  • Ravindra Pandey,
  • Behzad Damirchi,
  • Adri van Duin,
  • Gregory M. Odegard,
  • Hendrik Heinz

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-50793-0
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 1
pp. 1 – 16

Abstract

Read online

Abstract The simulation of chemical reactions and mechanical properties including failure from atoms to the micrometer scale remains a longstanding challenge in chemistry and materials science. Bottlenecks include computational feasibility, reliability, and cost. We introduce a method for reactive molecular dynamics simulations using a clean replacement of non-reactive classical harmonic bond potentials with reactive, energy-conserving Morse potentials, called the Reactive INTERFACE Force Field (IFF-R). IFF-R is compatible with force fields for organic and inorganic compounds such as IFF, CHARMM, PCFF, OPLS-AA, and AMBER. Bond dissociation is enabled by three interpretable Morse parameters per bond type and zero energy upon disconnect. Use cases for bond breaking in molecules, failure of polymers, carbon nanostructures, proteins, composite materials, and metals are shown. The simulation of bond forming reactions is included via template-based methods. IFF-R maintains the accuracy of the corresponding non-reactive force fields and is about 30 times faster than prior reactive simulation methods.