Equilibrium in the electronic subsystem across the solution-metal interface is considered to connect the standard electrode potential to the statistics of localized electronic states in solution. We argue that a correct derivation of the Nernst equation for the electrode potential requires a careful separation of the relevant time scales. An equation for the standard metal potential is derived ...

Background: Recent studies have proposed various sources for the origin of cooperativity in simpliied protein folding models. Important contributions to cooperativity that have been discussed include backbone hydrogen bonding, side-chain packing, and hydrophobic interactions. Related work has also focused on what interactions are responsible for making the free energy of the native structure a ...

Studying the properties of the solvent around proteins, we propose a much more sophisticated model of solvation than temperature-independent pairwise interactions between monomers, as is used commonly in lattice representations. We applied our model of solvation to a 16-monomer chain constrained on a two-dimensional lattice. We compute a phase diagram function of the temperature and a solvent p...

The P—S bond cleavage process in the hydroperoxidolysis of a model system for the nerve agent VX was studied using ab initio and semiempirical molecular orbital methods. Aqueous solvation effects were included through single-point calculations using the semiempirical SM5.2PD/A continuum solvation model and geometries optimized at the HF/MIDI! level of theory. The predominant pathway for P—S bon...

The complexes of the fluorescence probe coumarin 153 with apomyoglobin and apoleghemoglobin are used as model systems to study solvation dynamics in proteins. Time-resolved Stokes shift experiments are compared with molecular dynamics simulations, and very good agreement is obtained. The solvation of the coumarin probe is very rapid with approximately 60% occurring within 300 fs and is attribut...

Preferential solvation in aromatic nucleophilic substitution reactions is discussed using a kinetic study complemented with quantum chemical calculations. The model system is the reaction of a series of secondary alicyclic amines toward phenyl 2,4,6-trinitrophenyl ether in aqueous ethanol mixtures of different compositions. From solvent effect studies, it is found that only piperidine is sensit...

The continuum model of dipolar solvation dynamics is reviewed. The effects of non-spherical molecular shapes, of non-Debye dielectric relaxation of the polar solvent and of dielectric inhomogeneity of the solvent around the solute dipole are investigated. Several new theoretical results are presented. It is found that our generalized continuum model, which takes into account the dielectric inho...