Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Hydration Structure of KNO3 Electrolyte Solution

Molecular dynamics simulations were carried out to study the structure of ion clusters and hydration properties of KNO3 solution. The water molecule was treated as a simple-point-charge (SPC) model, and a four-site model for the nitrate ion was adopted. Both the Coulomb and Lennard-Jones interactions between all the charged sites were considered, and the long-range Coulomb electrostatic interaction was treated using Ewald summation techniques. The configuration of ionic pairs, the radial distribution function of the solution, and the effect of solution concentration on ionic hydration were studied in detail. It was found that there are ionic association phenomena in KNO3 solution and that the dimeric, triplet, solvent-separated ion pairs, and other complex clusters can be observed at high ionic concentration condition. As the concentration of solution decreases, the ionic hydration number increases, 5-7 for cation K+ and 3.5-4.7 for anion NO3-, which is in good agreement with former Monte Carlo and time-of-flight neutron diffraction results.