Effect of temperature on the dipole response, structural and dynamical properties of water under external electric fields

Abstract

Water, as simultaneously the most intriguing and ubiquitous liquid on the planet, holds central relevance in our world – and displays a suite of fascinating anomalies. Of notable interest in this study is the leveraging of non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulation to study the response of water molecules under the influence of external electric-fields while subjected to temperature changes. In particular, external static and oscillating electric fields with varying (r.m.s) intensities 0.05V/Å and 0.10V/Å and oscillating-field frequencies 50, 100 and 200GHz were examined to gauge the influence of supercooled and nearer-ambient temperature regions on water structure and interaction, dynamical properties, dipolar response, hydrogen-bond kinetics and lifetime. Interestingly, the impact of heating the system was accentuated with increase in the hydrogen-bond lengths, and A–D–H angles while the number of hydrogen-bonds reduced with increase in the temperature for all the fields conditions, although slight variations were observed under the influence of static and oscillating fields. Furthermore, as temperature increases, the increased rate of hydrogen-bond breakage influenced the rapid decay of hydrogen-bond lifetimes for zero- and static-field conditions, while molecular rotations caused by dipole-alignment response to the oscillating fields enhanced to a greater extent the mobility of the molecules, and also increased the rate of hydrogen-bond breakage and diffusivity due to the increased thermal motion. Moreover, the effect of increasing the temperature on the polarisation properties of the liquid weakened the hydrogen-bond network and also led to a decrease in the molecular and time response of the system’s dipole moment; higher temperature and field intensity invoked more rapid system dipolar alignment, in addition to the frequency relating to longer periods and greater intensity. With increasing temperature, the behaviour of system dynamics revealed shorter correlation times for zero-field conditions while oscillating-field with increased intensity revealed more rapid autocorrelation decay in comparison to those with reduced intensity. Indeed, the presence of much longer correlation time manifested by zero-field conditions in the supercooled temperature region evinced succinctly the lack of rotational motion that allows for more rapid decay time.