Coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation of self-assembly and surface adsorption of ionic surfactants using an implicit water model.

We perform coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations for sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) surfactant using a modification of the Dry Martini force field (Arnarez et al. 2014) with implicit water. After inclusion of particle mesh Ewald (PME) electrostatics, an artificially high dielectric constant for water (ε(r) = 150), and reparameterization, we obtain structural and thermodynamic properties of SDS micelles that are close to those obtained from the standard Martini force field with explicit water, which in turn match those of atomistic simulations. The gains in computational efficiency obtained by removing explicit water allow direct simulations of the self-assembly of SDS in solution. We observe surfactant exchange among micelles and micelle fission and fusion and obtain realistic, equilibrated micelle size distributions at modest computational cost, as well as a transition to cylindrical micelles at high surfactant concentration or with added salt. We further apply this parametrized force field to study the adsorption of SDS onto hydrophobic surfaces and calculate the adsorption kinetics and equilibrium adsorption isotherm. The greatly increased speed of computation of surfactant self-assembly made possible by this Dry Martini method should allow future simulation of competitive adsorption of multiple surfactant species to surfaces, as well as simulation of micellar shape transitions.