Understanding Self-Assembly and Molecular Packing in Methylcellulose Aqueous Solutions Using Multiscale Modeling and Simulations

We present a multiscale molecular dynamics (MD) simulation study on self-assembly in methylcellulose (MC) aqueous solutions. First, using MD simulations with a new coarse-grained (CG) model of MC chains in implicit water, we establish how the MC chains self-assemble to form fibrils and fibrillar networks and elucidate the MC chains’ packing within the assembled fibrils. The CG model for MC is extended from a previously developed model for unsubstituted cellulose and captures the directionality of H-bonding interactions between the -OH groups. The choice and placement of the CG beads within each monomer facilitates explicit modeling of the exact degree and position of methoxy substitutions in the monomers along the MC chain. CG MD simulations show that with increasing hydrophobic effect and/or increasing H-bonding strength, the commercial MC chains (with degree of methoxy substitution, DS, ∼1.8) assemble from a random dispersed configuration into fibrils. The assembled fibrils exhibit consistent fibril diameters regardless of the molecular weight and concentration of MC chains, in agreement with past experiments. Most MC chains’ axes are aligned with the fibril axis, and some MC chains exhibit twisted conformations in the fibril. To understand the molecular driving force for the twist, we conduct atomistic simulations of MC chains preassembled in fibrils (without any chain twists) in explicit water at 300 and 348 K. These atomistic simulations also show that at DS = 1.8, MC chains adopt twisted conformations, with these twists being more prominent at higher temperatures, likely as a result of shielding of hydrophobic methyl groups from water. For MC chains with varying DS, at 348 K, atomistic simulations show a nonmonotonic effect of DS on water-monomer contacts. For 0.0 < DS < 0.6, the MC monomers have more water contacts than at DS = 0.0 or DS > 0.6, suggesting that with few methoxy substitutions, the MC chains are effectively hydrophilic, letting the water molecules diffuse into the fibril to participate in H-bonds with the MC chains’ remaining -OH groups. At DS > 0.6, the MC monomers become increasingly hydrophobic, as seen by decreasing water contacts around each monomer. We conclude based on the atomistic observations that MC chains with lower degrees of substitutions (DS ≤ 0.6) should exhibit solubility in water over broader temperature ranges than DS ∼ 1.8 chains.