Reactive molecular dynamics simulations of switching processes of azobenzene-based monolayer on surface

It is a challenge to simulate the switching process of functional self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on metal surfaces, since the systems consist of thousands of atoms and the switching is triggered by quantum-mechanical events. Herein a molecular dynamics simulation with a reactive rotation potential of N=N bond is implemented to investigate the dynamic conformational changes and packing effects on the stimuli-responsive isomerization of the terminally thiol functionalized azobiphenyls (AZOs), which are bound on the Au(111) surface. To, respectively, distinguish the time evolutions that start from cis and trans initial configurations, two different functions are established to model the potential energy curves for cis-to-trans and trans-to-cis transitions, instead of the only one cosine function used in the conventional non-reactive force fields. In order to simulate the conformation transitions of the AZO film on surface, a random switching function, depending on the N=N twisting angle, is constructed to consider both forward and backward cis/trans isomerization events and to trigger the reaction by changing the N atom types automatically. The factors that will influence the isomerization process, including the choice of ensembles and thermostat algorithms, the time intervals separating each switching, and the forms of the switching function, are systematically tested. Most AZO molecules switch from the cis to trans configuration with a coverage of 5.76 x 10(-6) mol/m(2) on a picosecond time scale, and a low coverage might make the switching irreversible, which is in agreement with the experiments. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.