Various ions carrying a charge from À2 to +3 were confined in a drop of 100 water molecules as a way to model coordination properties inside the cluster and at the interface. The behavior of the ions has been followed by molecular dynamics with the AMOEBA polarizable force field. Multiply charged ions and small singly charged ions are found to lie inside the droplet, while bigger monovalent ions sit near the surface. The results provide a coherent picture of average structural properties as well as residence times for which a general trend is proposed, especially for the anions.

The calculation of infrared spectra by molecular dynamics simulations based on the AMOEBA polarizable force field has recently been demonstrated [Semrouni et al., J. Chem. Theory Comput., 2014, 10, 3190]. While this approach allows access to temperature and anharmonicity effects, band assignment requires additional tools, which we describe in this paper. The Driven Molecular Dynamics approach, originally developed by Bowman, Kaledin et al. [Bowman et al. J. Chem. Phys., 2003, 119, 646, Kaledin et al. J. Chem. Phys., 2004, 121, 5646] has been adapted and associated with AMOEBA. Its advantages and limitations are described. The IR spectrum of the Ac-Phe-Ala-NH2 model peptide is analyzed in detail. In addition to differentiation of conformations by reproducing frequency shifts due to non-covalent interactions, DMD allows visualizing the temperature-dependent vibrational modes.