Nanoscale Hydrophobic Interaction and Nanobubble Nucleation

Authors

T. Koishi, Computational Sciences Division, Advanced Computing Center, RIKEN,Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
S. Yoo, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
K. Yasuoka, Keio University, Yokohama 223-8522, Japan
Xiao Cheng Zeng, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
T. Narumi, High Performance Biocomputing Research Team, Bioinformatics Group, RIKEN Genomic Sciences Center, Yokohama 244-0804, Japan
R. Susukita, Computational Sciences Division, Advanced Computing Center, RIKEN,Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
A. Kawai, Computational Sciences Division, Advanced Computing Center, RIKEN,Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
H. Furusawa, Computational Sciences Division, Advanced Computing Center, RIKEN,Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
A. Suenaga, High Performance Biocomputing Research Team, Bioinformatics Group, RIKEN Genomic Sciences Center, Yokohama 244-0804, Japan
N. Okimoto, Computational Sciences Division, Advanced Computing Center, RIKEN,Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
N. Futatsugi, High Performance Biocomputing Research Team, Bioinformatics Group, RIKEN Genomic Sciences Center, Yokohama 244-0804, Japan
T. Ebisuzaki, Computational Sciences Division, Advanced Computing Center, RIKEN,Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan

Date of this Version

10-29-2004

Comments

Published by Am Physical Soc. Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 18 (2004). Copyright 2004. Permission to use. http://www.aps.org/.

Abstract

We report large-scale atomistic simulation of midrange nanoscale hydrophobic interaction, manifested by the nucleation of nanobubble between nanometer-sized hydrophobes at constrained equilibrium. When the length scale of the hydrophobes is greater than 2 nm, the nanobubble formation shows hysteresis behavior resembling the first-order transition. Calculation of the potential of mean force versus interhydrophobe distance provides a quantitative measure of the strength of the nanoscale hydrophobic interaction.