RMDff: A smoothly transitioning, forcefield-based representation of kinetics for reactive molecular dynamics simulations

RMDff is a new forcefield that smoothly couples the reactive intersections of potential energy surfaces to model chemical reactions. The method uses switching functions to accomplish a smooth transition from reactant to product atom types. This paper demonstrates and tests RMDff for homolytic scissions. The reaction networks are described by localized events involving only a few atoms, so that the complex mechanisms employed in conventional kinetics modeling are not needed. Unlike quantum chemical calculations, which are feasible only for small molecules, this new valence-bond forcefield can be coupled with Reactive Molecular Dynamics to describe chemical reactions in large domains.