ChemXDyn: Dynamics-informed species and reaction detection methodology from atomistic simulations

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Main Authors: Maddipati, Raj, Boddapati, Dhruthi, Arunan, Elangannan, Motamarri, Phani, Aditya, Konduri
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Maddipati, Raj
Boddapati, Dhruthi
Arunan, Elangannan
Motamarri, Phani
Aditya, Konduri
author_facet Maddipati, Raj
Boddapati, Dhruthi
Arunan, Elangannan
Motamarri, Phani
Aditya, Konduri
contents Accurate identification of chemical species and reaction pathways from molecular dynamics (MD) trajectories is a prerequisite for deriving predictive chemical-kinetic models and for mechanistic discovery in reactive systems. However, state-of-the-art trajectory analysis methods infer bonding from instantaneous distance thresholds, which can misclassify transient, nonreactive encounters as bonds and thereby introduce spurious intermediates, distorted reaction networks, and biased rate estimates. Here, we introduce ChemXDyn, a dynamics-aware computational methodology that leverages time-resolved interatomic distance signatures as a core principle to robustly identify chemically consistent bonded interactions and, consequently, extract meaningful reaction pathways. In particular, ChemXDyn propagates molecular connectivity through time while enforcing atomic valence and coordination constraints to distinguish genuine bond-breaking and bond-forming events from transient, nonreactive encounters. We evaluate ChemXDyn on ReaxFF MD simulations of hydrogen and ammonia oxidation and on neural-network potential MD simulations of methane oxidation, and benchmark its performance against widely used trajectory analysis methods. Across these cases, ChemXDyn suppresses unphysical species prevalent in static analyses, recovers experimentally consistent reaction pathways, and improves the fidelity of rate constant estimation. In ammonia oxidation, ChemXDyn removes unphysical intermediates and resolves key NOx- and N2O-forming and -consuming routes. In methane oxidation, it reconstructs the canonical progression from CH4 to CO2. By linking atomistic dynamics to chemically consistent reaction identification, ChemXDyn provides a transferable foundation for MD-derived reaction networks and kinetics, with potential utility spanning combustion, catalysis, plasma chemistry, and electrochemical environments.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_08385
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle ChemXDyn: Dynamics-informed species and reaction detection methodology from atomistic simulations
Maddipati, Raj
Boddapati, Dhruthi
Arunan, Elangannan
Motamarri, Phani
Aditya, Konduri
Computational Physics
Chemical Physics
Accurate identification of chemical species and reaction pathways from molecular dynamics (MD) trajectories is a prerequisite for deriving predictive chemical-kinetic models and for mechanistic discovery in reactive systems. However, state-of-the-art trajectory analysis methods infer bonding from instantaneous distance thresholds, which can misclassify transient, nonreactive encounters as bonds and thereby introduce spurious intermediates, distorted reaction networks, and biased rate estimates. Here, we introduce ChemXDyn, a dynamics-aware computational methodology that leverages time-resolved interatomic distance signatures as a core principle to robustly identify chemically consistent bonded interactions and, consequently, extract meaningful reaction pathways. In particular, ChemXDyn propagates molecular connectivity through time while enforcing atomic valence and coordination constraints to distinguish genuine bond-breaking and bond-forming events from transient, nonreactive encounters. We evaluate ChemXDyn on ReaxFF MD simulations of hydrogen and ammonia oxidation and on neural-network potential MD simulations of methane oxidation, and benchmark its performance against widely used trajectory analysis methods. Across these cases, ChemXDyn suppresses unphysical species prevalent in static analyses, recovers experimentally consistent reaction pathways, and improves the fidelity of rate constant estimation. In ammonia oxidation, ChemXDyn removes unphysical intermediates and resolves key NOx- and N2O-forming and -consuming routes. In methane oxidation, it reconstructs the canonical progression from CH4 to CO2. By linking atomistic dynamics to chemically consistent reaction identification, ChemXDyn provides a transferable foundation for MD-derived reaction networks and kinetics, with potential utility spanning combustion, catalysis, plasma chemistry, and electrochemical environments.
title ChemXDyn: Dynamics-informed species and reaction detection methodology from atomistic simulations
topic Computational Physics
Chemical Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.08385