We perform coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations for sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) surfactant using a modification of the Dry Martini force field (Arnarez et al. 2014) with implicit water. After inclusion of particle mesh Ewald (PME) electrostatics, an artificially high dielectric constant for water (ε(r) = 150), and reparameterization, we obtain structural and thermodynamic properties of SDS micelles that are close to those obtained from the standard Martini force field with explicit water, which in turn match those of atomistic simulations. The gains in computational efficiency obtained by removing explicit water allow direct simulations of the self-assembly of SDS in solution. We observe surfactant exchange among micelles and micelle fission and fusion and obtain realistic, equilibrated micelle size distributions at modest computational cost, as well as a transition to cylindrical micelles at high surfactant concentration or with added salt. We further apply this parametrized force field to study the adsorption of SDS onto hydrophobic surfaces and calculate the adsorption kinetics and equilibrium adsorption isotherm. The greatly increased speed of computation of surfactant self-assembly made possible by this Dry Martini method should allow future simulation of competitive adsorption of multiple surfactant species to surfaces, as well as simulation of micellar shape transitions.

We calculate potentials of mean force (PMFs) and mean first passage times for a surfactant to escape a micelle, for both ionic sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and nonionic ethoxylated alcohol (C12E5) micelles using both atomistic and coarse-grained molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The PMFs are obtained by umbrella sampling and used in a Smoluchowski first-passage-time theory to obtain the times for a surfactant to escape a micelle. The calculated mean first passage time for an SDS molecule to break away from a micelle (with an aggregation number of 60) is around 2 μs, which is consistent with previous experimental measurements of the "fast relaxation time" for exchange of surfactants between the micellar phase and the bulk solvent. The corresponding escape time calculated for a nonionic ethoxylated alcohol C12E5, with the same tail length as SDS, is 60 μs, which is significantly longer than for SDS primarily because the PMF for surfactant desorption is about 3kT smaller than for C12E5. We also show that two coarse-grained (CG) force fields, MARTINI and SDK, give predictions similar to the atomistic CHARMM force field for the nonionic C12E5 surfactant, but for the ionic SDS surfactant, the CG simulations give a PMF similar to that obtained with CHARMM only if long-range electrostatic interactions are included in the CG simulations, rather than using a shifted truncated electrostatic interaction. We also calculate that the mean first passage time for an SDS and a C12E5 to escape from a latex binder surface is of the order of milliseconds, which is more than 100 times longer than the time for escape from the micelle, indicating that in latex waterborne coatings, SDS and C12E5 surfactants likely bind preferentially to the latex polymer interface rather than form micelles, at least at low surfactant concentrations.

Using computer simulations, we systematically studied the influence of different design parameters of a spherical nanoparticle tethered with monovalent ligands on its targeting efficiency of planar cell surfaces containing mobile receptors. We investigate how the nanoparticle affinity can be affected by changing the binding energy, the percent of functionalization by ligands, tether length, grafting density, and nanoparticle core size. In general using a longer tether length or increasing the number of tethered chains without increasing the number of ligands increases the conformational penalty for tether stretching/compression near the cell surface and leads to a decrease of targeting efficiency. At the same time using longer tethers or a larger core size allows ligands to interact with receptors over a larger cell surface area, which can enhance the nanoparticle affinity towards the cell surface. We also discuss the selectivity of nanoparticle targeting of cells with a high receptor density. Based on the obtained results, we provide recommendations for improving the nanoparticle binding affinity and selectivity, which can guide future nanoparticle development for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.

Polymer micelles with two different core-forming blocks, poly(d,l -lactide) (PLA) and poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL), but the same coronal material, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), were investigated in this study as nanoscopic drug carriers. The release of two different drugs, doxorubicin (DOX) and beta-lapachone (beta-lap), from PEG(5k)-b-PCL(5k) and PEG(5k)-b-PLA(5k) micelles was studied at pH 5.0 and 7.4. Mathematical solutions of both Higuchi's model and Fickian diffusion equations were utilized to elucidate the differences between the micelle core materials for the two drugs. The neutral and smaller of the two drugs tested, beta-lap, demonstrated faster, pH-independent release, suggesting that no substantial changes occurred in either micelle core at lower pH. In contrast, the release rate of DOX was found to noticeably increase at lower pH with a larger cumulative amount of drug released. Different core materials were shown to have considerable influence on the release kinetics of both drugs: in both cases, the more hydrophobic PCL core showed slower drug release rates compared with the less hydrophobic PLA core.