Methylguanidinium at the Air/Water Interface: A Simulation Study with the Drude Polarizable Force Field

Methylguanidinium is an important molecular ion which also serves as the model compound for arginine side chain. We studied the structure and dynamics of methylguanidium ion at the air/water interface by molecular dynamics simulations employing the Drude polarizable force field. We found out that methylguanidinium accumulate on the interface with a majority adopting tilted conformations. We also demonstrated that methylguanidinium and guanidinium ions have different preference towards the air/water interface. Our results illustrate the importance to explicitly include the electronic polarization effects in modeling interfacial properties.