Interactive molecular dynamics in virtual reality for modelling materials and catalysts

Joe M Crossley-Lewis, Josh Dunn, Corneliu Buda, Glenn J Sunley, Alin Elena, IT Todorov, Chin Yong, David R Glowacki, Adrian J Mulholland*, Neil L Allan*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Interactive molecular dynamics simulation in virtual reality (iMD-VR) is emerging as a promising technique in molecular science. Here, we demonstrate its use in a range of fifteen applications in materials science and heterogeneous catalysis. In this work, the iMD-VR package Narupa is used with the MD package, DL_POLY [1]. We show how iMD-VR can be used to: (i) investigate the mechanism of lithium fast ion conduction by directing the formation of defects showing that vacancy transport is favoured over interstitialcy mechanisms, and (ii) guide a molecule through a zeolite pore to explore diffusion within zeolites, examining in detail the motion of methyl n-hexanoate in H-ZSM-5 zeolite and identifying bottlenecks restricting diffusion. iMD-VR allows users to manipulate these systems intuitively, to drive changes in them and observe the resulting changes in structure and dynamics. We make these simulations available, as a resource for both teaching and research. All simulation files, with videos, can be found online (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8252314) and are provided as open-source material.
Original languageEnglish
Article number108606
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Molecular Graphics and Modelling
Volume125
Early online date24 Aug 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
BP plc is thanked for financial support of J.C-L and J.D. through industrial CASE studentships in partnership with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) . Dr Simon Bennie assisted at the start of this project and participated in some discussions. JC-L acknowledges support from a 2019 summer bursary awarded by CCP5 (under EPSRC Grant EP/M022617/1 ) to Dr Bennie. The work has also been supported by EPSRC Grant, EP/M022609/1 (AJM) and BBSRC Grant BB/RO16445/1 (AJM).

Keywords

  • Virtual Reality
  • Materials
  • Molecular Dynamics
  • Zeolites
  • Fast Ion Conductors
  • Simulation and Modelling
  • Catalysis

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