Hydrogen Bonds In Liquid Water Research Articles

Hydration structure and dynamics, ultraviolet–visible and fluorescence spectra of caffeine in ambient liquid water. A combined classical molecular dynamics and quantum chemical study

The hydration structure and related dynamics of caffeine diluted in ambient liquid water have been extensively studied by performing classical molecular dynamics simulations, using our previously developed potential model of caffeine and the TIP4P/2005 water model. The results obtained have revealed that the first hydration shell of caffeine contains on average 56 water molecules. Hydrated caffeine forms in total 3 hydrogen bonds with its neighbor water molecules, with the Ocaffeine … Hwater hydrogen bonds exhibiting similar lifetimes with the ones corresponding to Owater … Hwater hydrogen bonds in liquid water. The self-diffusion coefficient of caffeine has been found to be four times lower than the corresponding value for water, being also in agreement with recent experimental measurements. The presence of water molecules inside the solvation shell of caffeine changes significantly their low-frequency intermolecular vibrations, as reflected on the calculated atomic velocity time correlation functions and corresponding spectral densities. Using the estimated average intermolecular structure of the first hydration shell of caffeine, the molecular cluster caffeine@W56 was optimized via quantum chemical calculations and subsequently the time-dependent density functional theory was used in order to predict the ultraviolet–visible and fluorescence spectra of hydrated caffeine. The results obtained are in agreement with recent experimental studies, which have proposed that such spectroscopic measurements can be used for the direct determination of alkaloids in aqueous extracts of natural products. In this framework, multi-scale molecular modelling providing accurate predictions of experimental data could also be a very useful tool, linking theoretical physical chemistry with analytical chemistry applications.

Thin-layer wicking experiments using magnetically treated water

Thin-layer wicking experiments were carried out using magnetically treated water and non-treated water. Two types of magnets of different constructions and strengths of the magnetic field (B = 15 mT and B = 0.27 T) were used. It was found that water circulating in the presence of a magnetic field penetrated faster into a porous layer of silica gel. This is reflected also in the changes in the electron donor and electron acceptor parameters of the surface free energy of the silica gel as calculated by using the Van Oss et al. approach. Based on this finding, it is hypothesized that changes in the water structure occur – that is, the water flow somehow destroys the network of hydrogen bonds in liquid water, while the magnetic field action promotes its formation.

Distinguishing Weak and Strong Hydrogen Bonds in Liquid Water-A Potential of Mean Force-Based Approach.

The ability to form hydrogen bonds is one of the most important factors behind water's many anomalous properties. However, there is still no consensus on the hydrogen bond structure of liquid water, including the average number of hydrogen bonds in liquid water. We use molecular dynamics simulations of the polarizable iAMOEBA water model for investigating the hydrogen bond characteristics of liquid water over a wide range of temperatures and pressures. Geometric definitions of a hydrogen bond often use a rectangular region on the plane of hydrogen bond distances and angles. In this work, we find that an elliptical region is more appropriate for the identification of hydrogen bonds, based on statistically favorable molecular configurations. The two-dimensional potential of mean force (PMF) landscape along the hydrogen bond distance (O-H) and angle (O-H-O) is calculated for identifying the statistically favored molecular configurations, which is then used for defining hydrogen bond formation as well as the strength of a hydrogen bond. We further propose a new approach to characterize the hydrogen bonds as strong when the PMF is lower than -2 kT. Using this definition, a consistent explanation for the different average numbers of hydrogen bonds in water is obtained in agreement with the literature. Simulations are also performed with the rigid and nonpolarizable TIP4P/2005 water model. Both water models are qualitatively consistent in predicting the distribution of double-, single-, and non-donor configurations, in line with experimental data, while the iAMOEBA water model yields more quantitatively precise results, including a 10-15% double-donor fraction at 90 °C and 1 atm. The method is also demonstrated to be applicable to the recent, and more general, three-dimensional PMF-based definition of hydrogen bonds.

Liquid Thermo-Responsive Smart Window Derived from Hydrogel

Summary Buildings account for 40% of global energy consumption, while windows are the least energy-efficient part of buildings. Conventional smart windows only regulate solar transmission. For the first time, we developed high thermal energy storage thermo-responsive smart window (HTEST smart window) by trapping the hydrogel-derived liquid within glasses. The excellent thermo-responsive optical property (90% of luminous transmittance and 68.1% solar modulation) together with outstanding specific heat capacity of liquid gives the HTEST smart window excellent energy conservation performance. Simulations suggested that HTEST window can cut off 44.6% heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) energy consumption compared with the normal glass in Singapore. In outdoor demonstrations, the HTEST smart window showed promising energy-saving performance in summer daytime. Compared with conventional energy-saving glasses, which need expensive equipment, the thermo-responsive liquid-trapped structure offers a disruptive strategy of easy fabrication, good uniformity, and scalability, together with soundproof functionality that opens an avenue for energy-saving buildings and greenhouses.

Disentangling Coupling Effects in the Infrared Spectra of Liquid Water.

A quantitative characterization of intermolecular and intramolecular couplings that modulate the OH-stretch vibrational band in liquid water has so far remained elusive. Here, we take up this challenge by combining the centroid molecular dynamics formalism, which accounts for nuclear quantum effects, with the MB-pol potential energy function, which accurately reproduces the properties of water across all phases, to model the infrared (IR) spectra of various isotopic water solutions with different levels of vibrational couplings, including those that cannot be probed experimentally. Analysis of the different IR OH-stretch line shapes provides direct evidence for the partially quantum-mechanical nature of hydrogen bonds in liquid water, which is emphasized by synergistic effects associated with intermolecular coupling and many-body electrostatic interactions. Furthermore, we quantitatively demonstrate that intramolecular coupling, which results in Fermi resonances due to the mixing between HOH-bend overtones and OH-stretch fundamentals, is responsible for the shoulder located at ∼3250 cm-1 of the IR OH-stretch band of liquid water.

Proper and improper hydrogen bonds in liquid water

The total lifetime distributions for hydrogen bonds in snapshots of molecular dynamics simulations of water serve as a basis to identify a class of proper hydrogen bonds. Proper bonds emerge and break up when restructuring the surrounding area of the hydrogen bond networkwhich weakly depend on the properties of this individual bond, i.e., almost randomly. Therefore, the distribution of the bond lifetimes is described by an exponential function similar to the distribution of the mean free path time in gas. It is shown that proper hydrogen bonds are strong, long-lived, and tetrahedrally oriented bonds. They account for about 80% of the bonds in each snapshot. Thus, these bonds form the basis or framework of the hydrogen bond network of water. The other, improper bonds have a substantially shorter lifetime; these are weak, bifurcated, and quickly switching bonds.

Covalency of hydrogen bonds in liquid water can be probed by proton nuclear magnetic resonance experiments.

The concept of covalency is widely used to describe the nature of intermolecular bonds, to explain their spectroscopic features and to rationalize their chemical behaviour. Unfortunately, the degree of covalency of an intermolecular bond cannot be directly measured in an experiment. Here we established a simple quantitative relationship between the calculated covalency of hydrogen bonds in liquid water and the anisotropy of the proton magnetic shielding tensor that can be measured experimentally. This relationship enabled us to quantify the degree of covalency of hydrogen bonds in liquid water using the experimentally measured anisotropy. We estimated that the amount of electron density transferred between molecules is on the order of 10 m while the stabilization energy due to this charge transfer is ∼15 kJ mol−1. The physical insight into the fundamental nature of hydrogen bonding provided in this work will facilitate new studies of intermolecular bonding in a variety of molecular systems.

Argon and water

Computer simulation of liquid argon and water has shown that the structural inhomogeneity pattern visualized by coloring their instantaneous structures according to the volumes of the Voronoi polyhedra is the same for both liquids. The dynamics of argon atoms in the cavity of a clathrate hydrate and in liquid water is considered. The argon atoms included in the network of hydrogen bonds in liquid water are involved in concerted motion. As a result of this concerted motion, the distance between two argon atoms can fluctuate around some value for a fairly long time. The environment of argon atoms in a liquid aqueous solution differs significantly from their environment in clathrate hydrates.

Model of cooperative character of hydrogen bonds in water

A quantitative description of hydrogen bonds in liquid water is developed using a simple model. The proposed approach is based on the notion of a hydrogen bond as mediated by proton exchange between neighboring hydroxyl groups under adiabatic conditions with respect to the electron subsystem. Application of the model is illustrated by means of the example of analysis of the IR absorption spectrum of a thin water layer. It is shown that the structure of water in layers with thicknesses on the order of 1 μm differs from the structure of bulk water.

Structure of hydrogen bonds in liquid water at subpicosecond time scales

A theory is presented showing how infrared pump–probe spectroscopy can be used to measure subpicosecond variations of the oxygen–oxygen distribution function in liquid water, Δ g OO( R, t). For times t > t c , where t c > 100 − 200 fs is the pump–probe time delay, the profiles of OH stretching bands of HDO/D 2O can be brought into a full coincidence with Δ g OO( R, t). Infrared pump–probe spectroscopy thus plays the role of time-resolved X-ray diffraction in this particular case. This method has many advantages. Not only it permits to obtain structural data concerning the OH⋯ O bonds at subpicosecond time scales, but also is non destructive in its essence; this is particularly important when studying biological water. Finally, pump–probe spectroscopy is very economical as compared with time-resolved X-ray techniques. Although theoretical, the present work may have an important impact in experimental biology.

Hydrogen-bond network and local structure of liquid water: An atoms-in-molecules perspective

The nearly linear relationship between hydrogen-bond strength at the CCSD(T)/Aug-cc-pVTZ level and the electron density at the bond critical point in the atoms-in-molecules theory provides a practical means of calculating the hydrogen-bond strength in liquid water. A statistical analysis of the hydrogen-bonds obtained from Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulations shows that the strengths of hydrogen bonds in liquid water conform to a Gaussian distribution. Considering supercooled (250 K) water to have a fully coordinated (icelike) local tetrahedral configuration, we show that the local structure of liquid water is partly distorted tetrahedral in normal liquid water and even in superheated water.

Isothermal isobaric molecular dynamics simulation of water

A series of isothermal isobaric molecular dynamics simulation are carried out on a system made up of 210 molecules at normal temperature and pressure ( T = 298 K, P = 1 bar) and at high pressure ( T = 298 K, P = 2.1 kbar). The physical model is based upon the tetrahedral cluster architecture composed of one central molecule (20% of the sample) and four outer molecules (80%). This theoretical approach of the liquid water structure and description was recently strengthened by spectroscopy measurements (Raman spectrometry, X-ray and neutron scattering) on the three-dimensional network of hydrogen bond at the femto second time scale [Ph. Wernet, D. Nordlund, U. Bergmann, M. Cavalleri, M. Odelius, H. Ogasawara, L.A. Naslund, T.K. Hirsch, L. Ojamae, P. Glatzel, L.G.M. Pettersson, A. Nilsson, Science 304 (2004) 995; Jared D. Smith, Christopher D. Cappa, Benjamin M. Messer, Walter S. Drisdell, Ronald C. Cohen, Richard J. SayKally, J. Phys. Chem. B 110 (2006) 20038; Jared D. Smith, Christopher D. Cappa, Kevin R. Wilson, Ronald C. Cohen, Phillip L. Geissler, Science 306 (2004)]. This work corroborates that the number of water molecules having two and four hydrogen bonds in liquid water represents the relative molecular composition of 20% and 80%, respectively, and improves our previous mixture model [M. Amrani, W. Sellaoui, M. Belhakem, A. Krallafa, D. Bormann, J. Soc. Algiers Chim. 13(2) (2003) 227–237] of water, focusing in particular on the charge asymmetry and distribution of water molecules within the liquid. For that purpose, investigations of the influence of the charge delocalization on the central molecule of our pentamer upon various calculated data are performed. A high pressure is applied to highlight optimal selective polarization on the hydrogen bond network forming the Walrafen’s cluster [D. Eizenberg, W. Kauzmann, The Structure and the Properties of Water, Springer, 1968] at room temperature. A complementary series of molecular dynamics simulation are carried out in the temperature range T = 270–285 K under atmospheric pressure for the optimal charge delocalisation and results are compared to the experimental data. Data reported in the present work such as structural data (molecular density or lacunar index, pair distribution function, hydrogen bond arrangements…), transport and thermodynamic properties are found to be in very good agreement with experimental data.

A theoretical study of medium effects on the structure of the glycine analogue aminomethylphosphonic acid

alpha-Aminophosphonic acids are analogues of natural alpha-aminoacids and very promising agents for use in various pharmaceutical applications. However, in contrast to the numerous theoretical investigations on the structure of natural alpha-aminoacids, only very few studies on alpha-aminophosphonic acids have been performed. In the present work, we report a detailed investigation of the simplest compound, the glycine analogue aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), by means of quantum mechanical calculations at the B3LYP/6-311++G(3df,2p)//B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p) and MP2/6-311++G(3df,2p)//B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p) levels. We focus on the structure of the neutral species looking at the evolution of non-ionized and ionized forms from gas phase to non-polar solvents and aqueous media. Continuum and discrete-continuum solvent models have been employed to account for the effects of the environment. The discussion is centered on: (1) the geometry and relative stability of possible conformers in gas phase and aqueous solution, (2) the free energy of tautomerization in different media, (3) the role of hydrogen bonds in liquid water, and (4) the free energy of transfer from water to a hydrophobic solvent such as cyclohexane. Systematic comparison between AMPA and Gly is performed. Though both systems exhibit many similarities, some important differences have also been found that may be explained, at least in part, by the higher acidity of phosphonic acids compared to carboxylic acids. In particular, in solvents lacking hydrogen-bond formation capability, Gly derivatives should mainly exist as non-ionized molecules while the equivalent AMPA derivatives should adopt a zwitterionic structure in media with dielectric constant above 10. This might have significant environmental or biological consequences that will need to be addressed.

Temperature, pressure, and isotope effects on the structure and properties of liquid water: A lattice approach

We present a lattice model to describe the effect of isotopic replacement, temperature, and pressure changes on the formation of hydrogen bonds in liquid water. The approach builds upon a previously established generalized lattice theory for hydrogen bonded liquids [B. A. Veytsman, J. Phys. Chem. 94, 8499 (1990)], accounts for the binding order of 1/2 in water-water association complexes, and introduces the pressure dependence of the degree of hydrogen bonding (that arises due to differences between the molar volumes of bonded and free water) by considering the number of effective binding sites to be a function of pressure. The predictions are validated using experimental data on the temperature and pressure dependence of the static dielectric constant of liquid water. The model is found to correctly reproduce the experimentally observed decrease of the dielectric constant with increasing temperature without any adjustable parameters and by assuming values for the enthalpy and entropy of hydrogen bond formation as they are determined from the respective experiments. The pressure dependence of the dielectric constant of water is quantitatively predicted up to pressures of 2 kbars and exhibits qualitative agreement at higher pressures. Furthermore, the model suggests a--temperature dependent--decrease of hydrogen bond formation at high pressures. The sensitive dependence of the structure of water on temperature and pressure that is described by the model rationalizes the different solubilization characteristics that have been observed in aqueous systems upon change of temperature and pressure conditions. The simplicity of the presented lattice model might render the approach attractive for designing optimized processing conditions in water-based solutions or the simulation of more complex multicomponent systems.

Hydrogen bonds in liquid water studied by photoelectron spectroscopy

The authors report on photoelectron emission spectroscopy measurements of the oxygen 1s orbital of liquid water, using a liquid microjet in ultrahigh vacuum. By suitably changing the soft x-ray photon energy, within 600-1200 eV, the electron probing depth can be considerably altered as to either predominantly access the surface or predominantly bulk water molecules. The absolute probing depth in liquid water was inferred from the evolution of the O1s signal and from comparison with aqueous salt solution. The presence of two distinctive components in the core-level photoelectron spectrum, with significantly different binding energies, is revealed. The dominant contribution, at a vertical binding energy of 538.1 eV, was found in bulk and surface sensitive spectra. A weaker component at 536.6 eV binding energy appears to be present only in bulk water. Hartree-Fock calculations of O1s binding energies in different geometric arrangements of the water network are presented to rationalize the experimental distribution of O1s electron binding energies.

Relevance of hydrogen bond definitions in liquid water

To evaluate the relevance of treating the hydrogen bonds in liquid water as a digital (discrete) network and applying topological analyses, a framework to optimize the fitting parameters in various hydrogen bond definitions of liquid water is proposed. Performance of the definitions is quantitatively evaluated according to the reproducibility of hydrogen bonding in the inherent structure. Parameters of five popular hydrogen bond definitions are optimized, for example. The optimal choice of parameters for the hydrogen bond definitions accentuates the binary nature of the hydrogen bonding and the intrinsic network topology of liquid water, especially at the low temperature region. The framework provides a solid basis for network analyses, which have been utilized for water, and is also useful for designing new hydrogen bond definitions.

Lifetimes and the dynamics of hydrogen bonds in liquid water

Based on Raman spectra of light, heavy, and half-heavy water in the region of O-H and O-D stretching vibrations and on the independent-oscillator model, it is shown that a peculiarity of the liquid state of water is the nonequivalence of O-H groups of water molecules in hydrogen bonding. The structure of liquid water and the mechanism of its molecular mobility are considered in this context.

Hydrogen bonding in liquid water: An ab initio QM/MM MD simulation study

Pattern and dynamics of hydrogen bonds in liquid water were investigated by a quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical molecular dynamics (QM/MM MD) simulation at Hartree–Fock (HF) level of theory. A large subregion of the whole system comprising two complete coordination shells was treated quantum mechanically in order to include all polarization and charge transfer effects and to obtain accurate data about structure and dynamics of the intermolecular bonds. The results of this investigation are in agreement with recent experimental findings and suggest that in liquid water every molecule forms in average 2.8, but almost as a rule less than four intermolecular hydrogen bonds.

Hydrogen bonds in liquid water are broken only fleetingly.

Although it is widely accepted that the local structure of liquid water has tetrahedral arrangements of molecules ordered by hydrogen bonds, the mechanism by which water molecules switch hydrogen-bonded partners remains unclear. In this mechanism, the role of nonhydrogen-bonded configurations (NHBs) between adjacent molecules is of particular importance. A molecule may switch hydrogen-bonding partners either (i) through thermally activated breaking of a hydrogen bond that creates a dangling hydrogen bond before finding a new partner or (ii) by infrequent but rapid switching events in which the NHB is a transition state. Here, we report a combination of femtosecond 2D IR spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the stability of NHB species in an isotopically dilute mixture of HOD in D2O. Measured 2D IR spectra reveal that hydrogen-bonded configurations and NHBs undergo qualitatively different relaxation dynamics, with NHBs returning to hydrogen-bonded frequencies on the time scale of water's fastest intermolecular motions. Simulations of an atomistic model for the OH vibrational spectroscopy of water yield qualitatively similar 2D IR spectra to those measured experimentally. Analysis of NHBs in simulations by quenching demonstrates that the vast majority of NHBs are in fact part of a hydrogen-bonded well of attraction and that virtually all molecules return to a hydrogen-bonding partner within 200 fs. The results from experiment and simulation demonstrate that NHBs are intrinsically unstable and that dangling hydrogen bonds are an insignificant species in liquid water.

Correlations among hydrogen bonds in liquid water.

By performing computer simulations of water with the TIP5P potential we show that structures formed by two or more hydrogen bonds affect the dynamical and static properties of water, especially in the vicinity of freezing temperature. In particular, the short time correlation between two coupled hydrogen bonds cannot be predicted assuming the statistical independence of the single hydrogen bonds. This introduces an additional relaxation time of approximately 9 ps close to the freezing point. We also find that the time persistence of structures formed by several hydrogen bonds (the first solvation shell) correlates with the local density, which is smaller around water molecules with a long-living environment.