Hydrogen bonding characterization in water and small molecules.

Abstract

The prototypical hydrogen bond in water dimer and hydrogen bonds in the protonated water dimer, in other small molecules, in water cyclic clusters, and in ice, covering a wide range of bond strengths, are theoretically investigated by first-principles calculations based on density functional theory, considering not only a standard generalized gradient approximation functional but also, for the water dimer, hybrid and van der Waals corrected functionals. We compute structural, energetic, and electrostatic (induced molecular dipole moments) properties. In particular, hydrogen bonds are characterized in terms of differential electron density distributions and profiles, and of the shifts of the centres of maximally localized Wannier functions. The information from the latter quantities can be conveyed to a single geometric bonding parameter that appears to be correlated with the Mayer bond order parameter and can be taken as an estimate of the covalent contribution to the hydrogen bond. By considering the water trimer, the cyclic water hexamer, and the hexagonal phase of ice, we also elucidate the importance of cooperative/anticooperative effects in hydrogen-bonding formation.