Coupling hydrophobic, dispersion, and electrostatic contributions in continuum solvent models
arXiv:physics/0509110 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.087802
Abstract
Recent studies of the hydration of micro- and nanoscale solutes have demonstrated a strong {\it coupling} between hydrophobic, dispersion and electrostatic contributions, a fact not accounted for in current implicit solvent models. We present a theoretical formalism which accounts for coupling by minimizing the Gibbs free energy with respect to a solvent volume exclusion function. The solvent accessible surface is output of our theory. Our method is illustrated with the hydration of alkane-assembled solutes on different length scales, and captures the strong sensitivity to the particular form of the solute-solvent interactions in agreement with recent computer simulations.
11 pages, 2 figures