Paul Kent Publications

Importance of nuclear quantum effects on aqueous electrolyte transport under confinement in Ti3C2 MXenes

Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation 18 6920 (2022)

Protons display a high chemical activity and strongly affect the charge storage capability in confined interlayer spaces of 2D-materials. As such, an accurate representation of proton dynamics under confinement is important for understanding and predicting charge storage dynamics in these materials. While often ignored in atomistic-scale simulations, nuclear quantum effects (NQEs), e.g. tunneling, can be significant under confinement even at room temperature. Using the thermosetted ring polymer molecular dynamics implementation of path integral molecular dynamics (PIMD) in conjunction with ReaxFF force field, density functional tight binding and NequIP neural network potential simulations, we investigate the role of NQEs on proton and water transport in bulk water and aqueous electrolytes under confinement in Ti3C2O2 MXenes. Although overall NQEs are relatively small, especially in bulk, we find that they can alter both quantitative values and qualitative trends on both proton transport and water self-diffusion under confinement relative to classical MD predictions. Therefore, our results suggest the need for NQEs to be considered to simulate aqueous systems under confinement for both qualitative and quantitative accuracy.

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