Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Sohini Dasgupta
Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.
To make practical the molecular dynamics simulation of large scale reactive chemical systems (1000s of atoms), we developed ReaxFF, a force field for reactive systems. ReaxFF uses a general relationship between bond distance and bond order on one hand and between bond order and bond energy on the other hand that leads to proper dissociation of bonds to separated atoms. Other valence terms present in the force field (angle and torsion) are defined in terms of the same bond orders so that all these terms go to zero smoothly as bonds break. In addition, ReaxFF has Coulomb and Morse (van der Waals) potentials to describe nonbond interactions between all atoms (no exclusions). These nonbond interactions are shielded at short range so that the Coulomb and van der Waals interactions become constant as Rij → 0. We report here the ReaxFF for hydrocarbons. The parameters were derived from quantum chemical calculations on bond dissociation and reactions of small molecules plus heat of formation and geometry data for a number of stable hydrocarbon compounds. We find that the ReaxFF provides a good description of these data. Generally, the results are of an accuracy similar or better than PM3, while ReaxFF is about 100 times faster. In turn, the PM3 is about 100 times faster than the QC calculations. Thus, with ReaxFF we hope to be able to study complex reactions in hydrocarbons.
Author(s): Van Duin ACT, Dasgupta S, Lorant F, Goddard III WA
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Physical Chemistry A
Year: 2001
Volume: 105
Issue: 41
Pages: 9396-9409
ISSN (print): 1089-5639
ISSN (electronic):
Publisher: American Chemical Society
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jp004368u
DOI: 10.1021/jp004368u
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
