A multi-scale Monte Carlo method for electrolytes

Abstract

Artifacts arise in the simulations of electrolytes using periodic boundary conditions (PBCs). We show the origin of these artifacts are the periodic image charges and the constraint of charge neutrality inside the simulation box, both of which are unphysical from the view point of real systems. To cure these problems, we introduce a multi-scale Monte Carlo (MC) method, where ions inside a spherical cavity are simulated explicitly, while ions outside are treated implicitly using a continuum theory. Using the method of Debye charging, we explicitly derive the effective interactions between ions inside the cavity, arising due to the fluctuations of ions outside. We find that these effective interactions consist of two types: (1) a constant cavity potential due to the asymmetry of the electrolyte, and (2) a reaction potential that depends on the positions of all ions inside. Combining the grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) with a recently developed fast algorithm based on image charge method, we perform a multi-scale MC simulation of symmetric electrolytes, and compare it with other simulation methods, including PBC + GCMC method, as well as large scale MC simulation. We demonstrate that our multi-scale MC method is capable of capturing the correct physics of a large system using a small scale simulation.

Keywords

• electrolytes
• Monte Carlo
• multi-scale
• image charges