The effect of the addition of a small amount of ethanol cosolvent
in supercritical CO2 on the solvation structure and dynamics
of caffeine in a mixed supercritical solvent has been investigated
using a systematic multiscale molecular modeling approach. An effective
interaction potential model has been employed for caffeine, using
the intramolecular geometry and charge distribution from quantum chemical
calculations performed in the present treatment and adopting well-established
Lennard-Jones parameters from the literature. The solvation structure
and related dynamics have been further investigated by means of classical
molecular dynamics simulations. The results obtained have revealed
an enhancement of the local mole fraction of ethanol around caffeine
due to the formation of hydrogen bonds between caffeine and its nearest
ethanol molecules. This effect becomes less pronounced as the pressure
of the system increases due to the denser packing of CO2 molecules in the first solvation shell of caffeine. The reorientational
dynamics of caffeine is controlled by the intermittent hydrogen-bond
dynamics, and its translational diffusion has been found to be significantly
lower in comparison with the values obtained for ethanol and CO2. The pressure effects on the self-diffusion have also been
found to be more pronounced in the cases of CO2 and EtOH
in comparison with caffeine. The findings of the present study confirm
a previous hypothesis in the literature, according to which polar
solutes approach the polar domains formed by the alcohol aggregates
and become more easily dissolved in the mixed CO2–ethanol
solvent than in pure supercritical CO2.