Polarizable model of chloroform based on classical Drude oscillators

Biophysical studies of membrane proteins through spectroscopic methods often require that the protein be extracted from its lipid environment and solubilized. Liquid chloroform is one of several organic co-solvents that is successfully used for this purpose. However, our understanding of the influence of such environments on the structure and dynamics of proteins is far from complete. Atomically-detailed molecular simulations may provide valuable insights to help interpret the experimental data derived from these complex systems, provided that appropriate developments in the existing force-fields are made. In this communication we present a novel polarizable model for chloroform, based on classical Drude oscillators. This model was calibrated to reproduce the vaporization enthalpy, density, static dielectric constant and self-diffusion constant of the pure liquid at ambient conditions. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.