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International audience; Ion solvation process has been analysed for the spherically symmetrical system where an ion is located inside a cavity surrounded by an isotropic nonlocal dielectric medium. It has been proven that for any dielectric properties of the medium, the electric field outside the cavity as well as the ion solvation energy depend only on the total ion charge but not of the particular distribution of the ion charge density inside the cavity. These characteristics remain unchanged if the charge is displaced from the external boundary of the cavity into it. Analytical formulas for them have been derived for a particular model of the nonlocal dielectric function. Comparison of results for the solvation energy on the basis of this new theory and of the conventional approach (disregarding the existence of the cavity) shows a significant difference between their predictions if the ion charge is displaced inside the ion cavity.

Potentials of Mean Force (PMF) for the Na+Cl− ion pair in water–dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) mixtures for three DMSO mole fractions have been computed using constrained Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations and confirmed by dynamical trajectories and residence times of the ion pair at various inter-ionic separations. The three ion-ion direct potentials used are 12-6-1, exp-6-1 and exp-8-6-1. The physical picture that emerges is that there is a strong contact ion pair (CIP) and strong to moderate solvent separated ion pair (SSIP) in these solutions. Analysis of local ion clusters shows that ions are dominantly solvated by water molecules. The 12-6-1 potential model predicts running coordination numbers closest to experimental data.

We extend, via a reformulation in terms of Poisson brackets, the method developed previously (Rey et al., J. Phys. Chem. A, 2009, 113, 8949) allowing analysis of the pathways of an excited molecule's ultrafast vibrational relaxation in terms of intramolecular and intermolecular contributions. In particular we show how to ascertain, through the computation of power and work, which portion of an initial excess molecular energy (e.g. vibrational) is transferred to various degrees of freedom (e.g. rotational, translational) of the excited molecule itself and its neighbors. The particular case of bend excess energy relaxation in pure water is treated in detail, completing the picture reported in the work cited above. It is shown explicitly, within a classical description, that almost all of the initial water bend excitation energy is transferred—either indirectly, via Fermi resonance centrifugal coupling to the bend-excited water's rotation, or directly via intermolecular coupling— to local water librations, only involving molecules in the first two hydration shells of the vibrationally excited water molecule. Finally, it is pointed out that the Poisson bracket formulation can also be applied to elucidate the microscopic character of solvation and rotational dynamics, and should prove useful in developing a quantum treatment for energy flow in condensed phases.

Quantum molecular dynamics simulations have been performed for an alkali atom (sodium) diluted in a model dipolar fluid, at various solvent densities, and for the sodium/pyrazine ion pair in the same liquid. The excitonic state proposed by Logan, i.e., an hybrid s/p dipolar atom, is found to be the ground state of the solvated sodium. The Na atomic dipole increases with solvent density. The dipole moment of the Na/pyrazine pair increases with solvent density as well: In this case the Na self‐excitation is replaced by electron transfer from Na to pyrazine resulting in a larger dipole moment stabilized by the solvent. Our results compare favorably with available experimental data.