Probing atomic-scale processes at the ferrihydrite-water interface with reactive molecular dynamics

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{
  "metadata": {
    "edited_by": 576, 
    "references": [
      {
        "url": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s12932-024-00094-8", 
        "type": "Journal reference", 
        "citation": "Hayatifar, A., Gravelle, S., Moreno, B.D. et al. Probing atomic-scale processes at the ferrihydrite-water interface with reactive molecular dynamics. Geochem Trans 25, 10 (2024).", 
        "doi": "10.1186/s12932-024-00094-8"
      }
    ], 
    "license_addendum": null, 
    "status": "published", 
    "is_last": true, 
    "contributors": [
      {
        "email": "ardalan.hayatifar@usask.ca", 
        "givennames": "Ardalan", 
        "familyname": "Hayatifar", 
        "affiliations": [
          "Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5E2, Canada"
        ]
      }, 
      {
        "email": "simon.gravelle@cnrs.fr", 
        "givennames": "Simon", 
        "familyname": "Gravelle", 
        "affiliations": [
          "University Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, LIPhy, 38000, Grenoble, France"
        ]
      }, 
      {
        "email": "Beatriz.Moreno@lightsource.ca", 
        "givennames": "Beatriz", 
        "familyname": "D. Moreno", 
        "affiliations": [
          "Science Division, Canadian Light Source, Saskatoon, SK, Canada"
        ]
      }, 
      {
        "email": "valerie.schoepfer@usask.ca", 
        "givennames": "Valerie A.", 
        "familyname": "Schoepfer", 
        "affiliations": [
          "Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5E2, Canada"
        ]
      }, 
      {
        "email": "matt.lindsay@usask.ca", 
        "givennames": "Matthew B. J.", 
        "familyname": "Lindsay", 
        "affiliations": [
          "Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5E2, Canada"
        ]
      }
    ], 
    "doi": "10.24435/materialscloud:vc-ch", 
    "conceptrecid": "2559", 
    "owner": 1650, 
    "_oai": {
      "id": "oai:materialscloud.org:2560"
    }, 
    "version": 1, 
    "keywords": [
      "Adsorption", 
      "Umbrella sampling", 
      "Synchrotron X-ray", 
      "Pair distribution function", 
      "Surface complexation models", 
      "Ferrihydrite"
    ], 
    "description": "Interfacial processes involving metal (oxyhydr)oxide phases are important for the mobility and bioavailability of nutrients and contaminants in soils, sediments, and water. Consequently, these processes influence ecosystem health and functioning, and have shaped the biological and environmental co-evolution of Earth over geologic time. Here we employ reactive molecular dynamics simulations, supported by synchrotron X-ray spectroscopy to study the molecular-scale interfacial processes that influence surface complexation in ferrihydrite-water systems containing aqueous molybdate. We validate the utility of this approach by calculating surface complexation models directly from simulations. The reactive force-field captures the realistic dynamics of surface restructuring, surface charge equilibration, and the evolution of the interfacial water hydrogen bond network in response to adsorption and proton transfer. We find that upon hydration and adsorption, ferrihydrite restructures into a more disordered phase through surface charge equilibration, as revealed by simulations and high-resolution X-ray diffraction. We observed how this restructuring leads to a different interfacial hydrogen bond network compared to bulk water by monitoring water dynamics. Using umbrella sampling, we constructed the free energy landscape of aqueous molybdate adsorption at various concentrations and the deprotonation of the ferrihydrite surface. The results demonstrate excellent agreement with the values reported by experimental surface complexation models. These findings are important as reactive molecular dynamics opens new avenues to study mineral-water interfaces, enriching and refining surface complexation models beyond their foundational assumptions.", 
    "_files": [
      {
        "size": 2835756, 
        "checksum": "md5:07e9b5e15ec6a1dc68767f17f8beefb1", 
        "description": "Trajectory of Mo-9 system", 
        "key": "Mo-9_simulation.mp4"
      }, 
      {
        "size": 33204105, 
        "checksum": "md5:f750de326ce1f2de22fb5fded88b3072", 
        "description": "The zip file contains short trajectories and analysis scripts", 
        "key": "trajectories_analysis_scripts.zip"
      }
    ], 
    "publication_date": "Feb 19, 2025, 10:20:17", 
    "license": "Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International", 
    "title": "Probing atomic-scale processes at the ferrihydrite-water interface with reactive molecular dynamics", 
    "mcid": "2025.29", 
    "id": "2560"
  }, 
  "revision": 3, 
  "created": "2025-02-14T22:08:50.343391+00:00", 
  "id": "2560", 
  "updated": "2025-02-19T09:20:17.898947+00:00"
}