A Model Potential for Acetonitrile: from Small Clusters to Liquid

A portable model potential, representing the intermolecular interaction of acetonitrile with itself and with ions, is proposed. Such model, formulated as a combination of a few effective components, given in terms of the polarizability and dipole moment values of the molecular partners, is here adopted as a building block of the force field of acetonitrile clusters in molecular dynamics simulations. Its reliability is tested by comparing the predicted features for both small ionic and neutral clusters containing acetonitrile with ab initio results and experimental information. Its application to molecular dynamics simulations of liquid acetonitrile and of the solvated Li+, Na+, K+, and I−, performed at several values of the temperature, discloses an ample and interesting phenomenology, described in an internally consistent way. Such model will be useful to assess the effect of intermolecular interactions on the dynamics of acetonitrile processes occurring in various environments of applied relevance, with emphasis on the dye-sensitized solar cell framework.