Molecular Dynamics Investigation of the Effects of Concentration on Hydrogen Bonding in Aqueous Solutions of Methanol, Ethylene Glycol and Glycerol

摘要

Hydrogen bonding interaction between alcohols and water molecules is an important characteristic in the aqueous solutions of alcohols, In this paper, a series of molecular dynamics simulations have been performed to investigate the aqueous solutions of low molecular weight alcohols (methanol, ethylene glycol and glycerol) at the concentrations covering a broad range from 1 to 90 mol %. The work focuses on studying the effect of the alcohols molecules on the hydrogen bonding of water molecules in binary mixtures. By analyzing the hydrogen bonding ability of the hydroxyl (-OH) groups for the three alcohols, it is found that the hydroxyl group of methanol prefers to form more hydrogen bonds than that of ethylene glycol and glycerol due to the intra-and intermolecular effects. It is also shown that concentration has significant effect on the ability of alcohol molecule to hydrogen bond water molecules. Understanding the hydrogen bonding characteristics of the aqueous solutions is helpful to reveal the cryoprotective mechanisms of methanol, ethylene glycol and glycerol in aqueous solutions.