Phospholipid force fields are of ample importance for the simulation of artificial bilayers,
membranes, and also for the simulation of integral membrane proteins. Here, we compare
the two most applied atomic force fields for phospholipids, the all-atom CHARMM27 and
the united atom Berger force field, with a newly developed all-atom generalized Amber force
field (GAFF) for dioleoylphosphatidylcholine (DOPC) molecules. Only the latter displays the
experimentally observed difference in the order of the C2 atom between the two acyl chains.
The interfacial water dynamics is smoothly increased between the lipid carbonyl region and
the bulk water phase for all force fields, however, the water order and with it the eletrostatic
potential across the bilayer showed distinct differences between the force fields. Both Berger
and GAFF underestimate the lipid self-diffusion. GAFF offers a consistent force field for the
atomic scale simulation of biomembranes.