Hydrogen Bond Dynamics at the Water/Hydrocarbon Interface

Abstract

The dynamics of hydrogen bond formation and breakage for water in the vicinity of water/hydrocarbon liquid interfaces is studied using molecular dynamics simulations. Several liquid alkanes are considered as the hydrocarbon phase in order to determine the effects of their chain length and extent of branching on the properties of the adjacent water phase. In addition to defining the interface location in terms of the laboratory-frame density profiles, the effects of interfacial fluctuations are considered by locating the interface in terms of the proximity of the molecules of the other phase. We find that the hydrogen bond dynamics of interfacial water is weakly influenced by the identity of the hydrocarbon phase and by capillary waves. In addition to calculating hydrogen bond time correlations, we examine how the hydrogen bond dynamics depend on local coordination and determine the extent of cooperativity in the population relaxation of the hydrogen bonds that a given molecule participates in. The contributions of translational diffusion and reorientation of molecular O-H bonds to the mechanism of hydrogen bond breakage and reformation are investigated. In previous work, we have shown that rotation of the principal axes of water is anisotropic at the interface and depends on the initial orientation of the molecule relative to the interface. Here, we extend this analysis to the reorientation of the O-H vector and to hydrogen bond time correlation. We find that hydrogen bond dynamics are also sensitive to the initial orientation of the molecules participating in the hydrogen bond.