Solvation Effects on Molecules and Biomolecules ─ Computational Methods and Applications

This volume is an interdisciplinary treatise on the theoretical approach to solvation problems. Solvents are important in chemistry, physics, and biology. Almost all experiments made in organic chemistry, including all kinds of spectroscopy, are made in solution. In biology, several reactions are known that only occur in an aqueous environment. In physics, the interaction with the environment changes optical properties and affects the design of sensors and devices. In recent years the development of theoretical methods to treat solvation problems has seen great progress and quantum chemistry is now making an important incursion into the liquid phase, coupling statistical physics with quantum mechanics. This book describes the essential details of the theoretical methods and places them into the context of modern applications, and hence is of broad interest to theoreticians and experimentalists in both academic and industrial settings. The assembly of these modern methods and applications into one volume is a unique contribution to date, and is likely to have large impact on the community that is making rapid advances in science and engineering. All of the proposed authors are renowned experts in their fields and the different topics covered in this volume represent complimentary approaches that will give a broad and ample description of the field in its present stage of development.

Prof. Sylvio Canuto (editor of this review volume) is a professor of physics at University of Sao Paulo and is presently serving as: A member of the advisory editorial board of the Chemical Physics Letters (Elsevier); a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry (John Wiley); a specialist editor of the Computer Physics Communications (North Holland); an associate editor of the Brazilian Journal of Physics; a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Computational Methods in Science and Engineering; a member of the International Scientific Advisory Board of the Journal of the Argentine Chemical Society. In addition to these duties, he is co-editor of the following SI volumes: an International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, 106 (2006) issue no. 13; an International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, 103 (2005) issue no. 5.; the Journal of Molecular Structure (Theochem), 464 (1999) issue 1-3.; the Brazilian Journal of Physics, 34 (2004) issue 1.; and the Brazilian Journal of Physics, 24 (1994) (part of) issue 4.Prof. Canuto has co-edited the following books: Electronic Structure of Atoms, Molecules and Solids. Proceedings of the 2nd Brazilian School on Electronic Structure. J. DA. Castro, S. Canuto and F. Paixao. World Scientific, 1990.; and I Escola Brasileira de Estrutura Eletronica, Ed. Universidade de Brasilia (1989), 587 pages (in portuguese) and co-authored: Teoria Quantica de Moleculas e Solidos, ed. Livraria da Fisica, (2004), 400 pages (in portuguese) J D M Vianna, A. Fazzio and S. Canuto.