Coarse-Grained Force Field Calibration Based on Multiobjective Bayesian Optimization to Simulate Water Diffusion in Poly-epsilon-caprolactone

JM Sestito and ML Thatcher and LS Shu and TAL Harris and Y Wang, JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY A, 124, 5042-5052 (2020).

DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.0c01939

Molecular dynamics at the atomistic scale is increasingly being used to predict material properties and speed up the material design and development process. However, the accuracy of molecular dynamics predictions is sensitively dependent on the force fields. In the traditional force field calibration process, a specific property, predicted by the model, is compared with the experimental observation and the force field parameters are adjusted to minimize the difference. This leads to the issue that the calibrated force fields are not generic and robust enough to predict different properties. Here, a new calibration method based on multiobjective Bayesian optimization is developed to speed up the development of molecular dynamics force fields that are capable of predicting multiple properties accurately. This is achieved by reducing the number of simulation runs to generate the Pareto front with an efficient sequential sampling strategy. The methodology is demonstrated by generating a new coarse-grained force field for polycaprolactone, where the force field can predict the mechanical properties and water diffusion in the polymer.

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