  The inclusion of electronic polarization is of crucial importance in
molecular simulations of systems containing charged moieties. When neglected,
as often done in force field simulations, charge-charge interactions in
solution may become severely overestimated leading to unrealistically strong
bindings of ions to biomolecules. The electronic continuum correction
introduces electronic polarization in a mean-field way via scaling of charges
by the reciprocal of the square root of the high-frequency dielectric constant
of the solvent environment. Here, we use ab initio molecular dynamics
simulations to quantify the effect of electronic polarization on pairs of
like-charged ions in a model non-aqueous environment where electronic
polarization is the only dielectric response. Our findings confirm the
conceptual validity of the present approach, underlining its applicability to
complex aqueous biomolecular systems. Simultaneously, the present results
justify the potential employment of weaker charge scaling factors in force
field development.
