Statistical Mechanics in Chemistry and Biology (SMCB)

Preamble

Despite its great importance in understanding natural phenomena, applications of statistical mechanics in Chemistry and Biology are still an emerging area of research. This is especially true in India, primarily because of lack of exposure and training of students, on the great utility and strength of statistical mechanics. The subject is essential for understanding a wide range of phenomena in chemistry and biology, which include (among many others):

Solvent effects on chemical reaction dynamics in liquids and within biological cells
Phase transitions and nucleation, like the formation of raindrops and ice
Experimental results in spectroscopy
Protein folding and interactions of biological membranes with proteins

The purpose of the present seminar series (Statistical Mechanics in Chemistry and Biology (SMCB)) is an attempt to provide such exposure. The emphasis of the SMCB seminar series will be on bringing together young students and faculty, so that it becomes a forum for them, to argue, discuss and learn. We hope that a large number of students and faculty would participate and benefit from the high level of intellectual environment that the meeting shall serve to create.

Announcement of SMCB-2024 conference

The first in-person meeting SMCB-2024 will be held at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Tirupati, during 16-19 December, 2024. For more updates, please visit: https://sites.google.com/view/smcb2024

Previous Event: Lecture by Dr. Snehasis Daschakraborty, Department of Chemistry, IIT Patna

Schedule: 31.08.2024 (Saturday) at 3:30 PM (IST)

Duration: 1 hour, followed by discussion

Talk title: Unlocking Supercooled Water: Translational Jump-Diffusion Approach and Its Broader Applications

Abstract:

Despite being the most ubiquitous liquid, water exhibits numerous thermodynamic and dynamic anomalies, which intensify in its supercooled state. While thermodynamic anomalies have been extensively studied, dynamical anomalies have received less attention due to the experimental challenges involved. One significant dynamical anomaly is the violation of the Stokes-Einstein relation (SER), which connects particle diffusion to the medium's viscosity. Although some theories have attempted to explain this breakdown, a detailed molecular mechanism remained elusive.4 We have developed the Translational Jump-Diffusion (TJD) approach, which successfully explains the SER breakdown in supercooled water and aqueous solutions. It was found that the increasing contribution of translational jumps to total diffusion is responsible for the diffusion-viscosity decoupling observed in these systems. Based on this approach we have developed a theoretical method to compute the viscosity of water in nanochannels and other complex confined environments. A similar approach has been applied to explain the anomalous dynamics of lipids in complex cell membranes. This talk will delve into these developments and explore potential future directions.

References:

1. S.-H. Chen, F. Mallamace, C.-Y. Mou, M. Broccio, C. Corsaro, A. Faraone and L. Liu, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 2006, 103, 12974–12978.

2. A. Dehaoui, B. Issenmann and F. Caupin, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 2015, 112, 12020–12025.

3. L. P. Singh, B. Issenmann and F. Caupin, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 2017, 114, 4312–4317.

4. P. Kumar, S. V. Buldyrev, S. R. Becker, P. H. Poole, F. W. Starr and H. E. Stanley, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 2007, 104, 9575–9579

5. S. Dueby, V. Dubey and S. Daschakraborty, J. Phys. Chem. B, 2019, 123, 7178–7189

6. V. Dubey, S. Erimban, S. Indra and S. Daschakraborty, J. Phys. Chem. B, 2019, 123, 10089–10099.

7. V. Dubey and S. Daschakraborty, J. Phys. Chem. B, 2020, 124, 10398–10408.

8. V. Dueby, S. Dubey and S. Daschakraborty, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2021, 23, 19964-19986.

9. G. R. Khan and S. Daschakraborty, J. Phys. Chem. C, 2023, 127, 7027–7035.

10. G. R. Khan and S. Daschakraborty, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2024, 26, 4492–4504.

Registration

For receiving future announcements, please send a request to join the google group by clicking the following link: https://groups.google.com/g/smcb2021

Recorded lectures may be accessed from our YouTube channel: Click here!

If you have any question/feedback/suggestions, please feel free to write to us at : smcb2021<at>gmail.com (replace <at> by @)

Coordinators

Advisors

Prof. Ranjit Biswas, SNBNCBS Kolkata

Dr. Suman Chakrabarty, SNBNCBS Kolkata

Dr. Rajib Biswas, IIT Tirupati

Prof. Biman Bagchi, IISc

IISc

SNBNCBS

IIT Tirupati

E-mail: smcb2021[at]gmail.com (replace [at] with @)