AMS & Science 2022 #1 - Adri van Duin: ReaxFF concepts, applications, future directions

Prof. Adri van Duin, the developer and mind behind the bond-order based reactive force field method ReaxFF was starting off our new AMS & Science webinar series with the following presentation.

Find out more about the AMS2022 webinar series on:
https://www.scm.com/news/ams-2022-web...

Abstract: The ReaxFF method provides a highly transferable simulation method for atomistic scale simulations on chemical reactions at the nanosecond and nanometer scale. It combines concepts of bond-order based potentials with a polarizable charge distribution.
Since its initial development for hydrocarbons in 20011, we have found that this concept is transferable to applications to elements all across the periodic table, including all first row elements, metals, ceramics and ionic materials2. For all these elements and associated materials we have demonstrated that ReaxFF can accurately reproduce quantum mechanics-based structures, reaction energies and reaction barriers, enabling the method to predict reaction kinetics in complicated, multi-material environments at a relatively modest computational expense. At this moment, over 1000 publications including ReaxFF development of applications have appeared in open literature and the ReaxFF code – as implemented in LAMMPS, ADF, or in standalone-format – has been distributed around the world.
This presentation will describe the current concepts of the ReaxFF method, the current status of the various ReaxFF codes, including parallel implementations and acceleration methods. Also, we will present and overview of recent and past applications to complex materials, including the synthesis of carbon fibers3 and carbon nanotubes4, applications to perovskite based ferroelectric materials5, cold sintering of complex oxides6 and recent developments for expansion of ReaxFF for events that require explicit electrons (e-ReaxFF)7. We will also discuss future directions, including improved parameterization concepts and ReaxFF connections with path integral molecular dynamics – providing improvements over classical molecular dynamics integration methods.