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In 1954, Asakura and Oosawa1 explained that nonadsorbing macromolecules can induce attractive forces between colloidal particles. The effective pair interaction between the colloidal particles mediated by the non-adsorbing species is nowadays often termed the Asakura–Oosawa (AO) potential. This special issue of The Journal of Chemical Physics contains a collection of papers related to the concept introduced by Asakura and Oosawa. The late professor Oosawa contributed to this issue with a historical overview on the origin of the Asakura–Oosawa theory. Kurihara and Vincent discussed how, after a lag time of about 20 years, the theory was rediscovered in the 1970s via experimental studies on colloid–polymer mixtures. In the same period, Vrij independently found that excluded volume interactions in a colloidal dispersion containing an additional component have important consequences for the effective interactions, structure, and phase stability.

In this paper, a previous coarse-grain model [J. T. Padding and W. J. Briels, J. Chem. Phys. 117, 925 (2002)]10.1063/1.1481859 to simulate melts of linear polymers has been adapted to simulate polymers with more complex hierarchies. Bond crossings between highly coarse-grained soft particles are prevented by applying an entanglement algorithm. We first test our method on a virtual branch point inside a linear chain to make sure it works effectively when linking two linear arms. Next, we apply our method to study the diffusive and rheological behaviors of a melt of three-armed stars. We find that the diffusive behavior of the three-armed star is very close to that of a linear polymer with the same molecular weight, while its rheological properties are close to those of a linear chain with molecular mass equal to that of the longest linear sub-chain in the star.

This paper presents a detailed study of a water adlayer adsorbed on Pt(111) and Rh(111) surfaces using periodic density functional theory methods. The interaction between the metal surface and the water molecules is assessed from molecular dynamics simulation data and single point electronic structure calculations of selected configurations. It is argued that the electron bands around the Fermi level of the metal substrate extend over the water adlayer. As a consequence in the presence of the water layer the surface as a whole still maintains its metallic conductivity-a result of a crucial importance for understanding the process of electron transfer through the water/metal interface and electrochemical reactions in particular. Our results also indicate that there exists a weak bond between the hydrogen of the water and the Rh metal atoms as opposed to the widespread (classical) models based on purely repulsive interaction. This suggests that the commonly used classical interactions potentials adopted for large scale molecular dynamics simulations of water/metal interfaces may need revision. Two adsorption models of water on transition metals with the OH bonds pointing towards or away of the surface are also examined. It is shown that due to the very close values of their adsorption energies one should consider the real structure of water on the surface as a mixture of these simple "up" and "down" models. A model for the structure of the adsorbed water layer on Rh(111) is proposed in terms of statistical averages from molecular dynamics simulations.

Dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) is a mesoscopic simulation method for studying hydrodynamic behavior of complex fluids. Ideally, a mesoscopic model should correctly represent the thermodynamic and hydrodynamic properties of a real system beyond certain length and time scales. Traditionally defined DPD quite successfully mimics hydrodynamics but is not flexible enough to accurately describe the thermodynamics of a real system. The so-called multibody DPD (MDPD) is a pragmatic extension of the classical DPD that allows one to prescribe the thermodynamic behavior of a system with only a small performance impact. In an earlier paper [S. Y. Trofimov, E. L. F. Nies, and M. A. J. Michels, J. Chem. Phys. 117, 9383 (2002)] we much improved the accuracy of the MDPD model for strongly nonideal systems, which are of most practical interest. The ability to correctly reproduce the equation of state of realistic systems in turn makes simulations at constant pressure sensible and useful. This situation of constant-pressure conditions is very common in experimental studies of ??soft?? condensed matter but has so far remained unexplored with the traditional DPD. Here, as a proof of concept, we integrate a modified version of the Andersen barostat into our improved MDPD model and make an evaluation of the performance of the new model on a set of single- and multicomponent systems. The modification of the barostat suppresses the "unphysical" volume oscillations after a sudden pressure change and simplifies the equilibration of the system.

In a recent paper Peeters et al. published new experimental data on nucleation rates of water in the temperature range of 200–235 K. They reported about a drastic change in the nucleation rate at 207 K. An error in their experimental procedure has been found. The data of Peeters et al. have been reinterpreted. The jump in nucleation rate disappears and the corrected nucleation rate data are in good agreement with data found by Wölk and Strey with a different experimental facility.

The reactivity and spectra of formaldehyde isomers and dimeric complexes between them are studied with ab initio methods. A large number of complexes between H2CO, trans-HCOH, cis-HCOH is calculated. Infrared and Raman spectra of (H2CO)2 are calculated with relatively simple methods using spectroscopic masses and scaled force constants. In this way, the structure of dimers in matrices can be deduced. Hydroxycarbene (HCOH) plays a key role in a model that explains a large number of experimental facts of the nonzero pressure photochemistry. Hydroxycarbene forms complexes with H2CO; the stabilization is due to classical hydrogen bonds. HCOH is a new example of an ambiphilic carbene. Addition products are formed from HCOH···H2CO complexes. The calculations show that, in agreement with matrix experiments, glycoaldehyde and methanol are easily formed. The formation of trans-HCOH occurs through a dimeric interaction with the shifting hydrogen. This bimolecular process is 9.6 kcal/mol (6–31G*) in favor of the unimolecular conversion. cis-HCOH might be formed via a nonplanar transition state, where also stabilization at the carbenic center is possible. When higher concentrations of HCOH are available, a hydrogen exchange mechanism easily transfers hydroxycarbene back to H2CO. Several experiments are suggested in this paper; notably, molecular beam and isotopic-mixture experiments will give useful information. The involvement of HCOH in the light-induced formose reaction is suggested.

This paper reports an ab initio CI calculation of the radiationless decay of the formaldehyde 1A2 state. First we derive quantitative conditions, which a basis set must satisfy if it is to be used for describing radiationless decay. We checked these conditions for the formaldehyde molecule and found them to be satisfied for the adiabatic Born–Oppenheimer set used in the calculation. We then derive a general equation for the coupling elements resulting from this basis set. With the method used, rotational coupling could be treated completely equivalent with vibrational coupling; this rotational coupling turned out to be not important in formaldehyde however. The coupling elements for D2CO are a factor 10 smaller than the corresponding ones in H2CO. The results of the calculation show, that the internal conversion in formaldehyde is an example of the so-called resonance case. Therefore the decay cannot be described by the model proposed by Yeung and Moore, where S1¿S0 internal conversion is the rate determining step in the photodissociation. Finally, we discuss the applicability of the ’’golden rule’’ in describing radiationless decay.

This paper reports an ab initio CI calculation of the radiative 1A1¿1A2 transition of H2CO and D2CO. Throughout the calculation the electronic wavefunctions and transition moments are explicitly calculated as functions of the nuclear geometry, contrary to the conventional Herzberg–Teller approach. The evaluation of the vibrational wavefunctions and integrals was made numerically. The results show that the excited state frequency for mode 3 has to be reassigned and that the calculated vibrational structure agrees well with the experimental intensities.