O-H stretch modes of dodecahedral water clusters: a statistical ab initio study

Unusually strong hydrogen bond cooperativity in particular (H2O)20 clusters

Drawing upon an intuitive charge-transfer-based picture of hydrogen bonding, we demonstrate that cooperativity effects acting in concert can lead to unusually strong hydrogen bonds in neutral water clusters. The structure, vibrational, and NMR properties of a (H2O)20 pentagonal dodecahedron cluster containing such a strong hydrogen bond were studied using second-order perturbation theory and density functional theory. The hydrogen bond length was found to be shorter than 2.50 Å. A large redshift of over 2000 cm-1 with respect to the isolated water molecule was predicted for the OH stretching frequency of the donor water molecule. A large downfield shift to 13.5 ppm of the isotropic part of the 1H magnetic shielding tensor together with an unusually large shielding anisotropy of 49.9 ppm was obtained. The hydrogen bond energy was calculated using symmetry-adapted perturbation theory and was found to be more than three times stronger than a typical hydrogen bond in liquid water.

Matrix Isolation Spectroscopy: Aqueous p-Toluenesulfonic Acid Solvation

Interaction between p-toluenesulfonic acid (pTSA) and water is studied at -20 °C in a CCl₄ matrix. In CCl₄ water exists as monomers with restricted rotational motion about its symmetry axis. Additionally, CCl₄ is transparent in the hydrogen-bonded region; CCl₄ thus constitutes an excellent ambient thermal energy matrix isolation medium for diagnosing interactions with water. Introducing pTSA-nH₂O gives rise to two narrow resonances at 3642 cm^-1 and at 2835 cm^-1 plus a broad 3000-3550 cm^-1 absorption. In addition, negative monomer symmetric and asymmetric stretch features relative to nominally dry CCl₄ indicate that fewer water monomers exist in the cooled (-20 °C) acid solution than in room-temperature anhydrous CCl₄. The negative peaks along with the broad absorption band indicate that water monomers are incorporated into clusters. The 3642 cm^-1 resonance is assigned to the OH-π interaction with a cluster containing many water molecules per acid molecule. The 2835 cm^-1 resonance is assigned to the (S-)O-H stretch of pTSA-dihydrate. The coexistence of these two species provides insights into interactions in this acid-water CCl₄ system.

Electronic origin of the dependence of hydrogen bond strengths on nearest-neighbor and next-nearest-neighbor hydrogen bonds in polyhedral water clusters (H2O)n, n = 8, 20 and 24

The influence of the nearest neighbor and next-nearest neighbor water molecules on the strength of the hydrogen (H) bonds was examined for the polyhedral clusters of cubic (H2O)8, dodecahedral (H2O)20 and tetrakaidecahedral (H2O)24 cages. The relative stability and the characteristics of the H bond networks are also studied. The charge-transfer (CT) and dispersion interaction terms of every pair of H bonds are evaluated using perturbation theory based on the locally-projected molecular orbitals (LPMO PT). Every water molecule and every H-bonded pair in these polyhedral clusters are classified by the types of the neighbor molecules and H bonds. The relative binding energies among the polyhedral clusters are grouped by these classifications. The optimized OO distances, which are strongly correlated with the calculated pairwise CT terms, are dependent on the 49 sub-groups of the H bonds determined by the type of the neighbor molecules. The electronic origin of this dependence is analyzed using Mulliken's charge-transfer theory, and employing a few assumptions, the analytical formulas for the contribution of the CT terms to the H bond energy are derived.

The water hexamer: three-body interactions, structures, energetics, and OH-stretch spectroscopy at finite temperature

Using a newly developed and recently parameterized classical empirical simulation model for water that involves explicit three-body interactions, we determine the eleven most stable isomers of the water hexamer. We find that the lowest energy isomer is one of the cage structures, in agreement with far-IR and microwave experiments. The energy ordering for the binding energies is cage > glove > book > bag > chair > boat > chaise, and energies relative to the cage are in good agreement with CCSD(T) calculations. The three-body contributions to the cage, book, and chair are also in reasonable agreement with CCSD(T) results. The energy of each isomer results from a delicate balance involving the number of hydrogen bonds, the strain of these hydrogen bonds, and cooperative and anti-cooperative three-body interactions, whose contribution we can understand simply from the form of the three-body interactions in the simulation model. Oxygen-oxygen distances in the cage and book isomers are in good agreement with microwave experiments. Hydrogen-bond distances depend on both donor and acceptor, which can again be understood from the three-body model. Fully anharmonic OH-stretch spectra are calculated for these low-energy structures, and compared with shifted harmonic results from ab initio and density functional theory calculations. Replica-exchange molecular dynamics simulations were performed from 40 to 194 K, which show that the cage isomer has the lowest free energy from 0 to 70 K, and the book isomer has the lowest free energy from 70 to 194 K. OH-stretch spectra were calculated between 40 and 194 K, and results at 40, 63, and 79 K were compared to recent experiments, leading to re-assignment of the peaks in the experimental spectra. We calculate local OH-stretch cumulative spectral densities for different donor-acceptor types and compare to analogous results for liquid water.

Hydrogen bonding and Raman, IR, and 2D-IR spectroscopy of dilute HOD in liquid D2O

We present improvements on our previous approaches for calculating vibrational spectroscopy observables for the OH stretch region of dilute HOD in liquid D2O. These revised approaches are implemented to calculate IR and isotropic Raman spectra, using the SPC/E simulation model, and the results are in good agreement with experiment. We also calculate observables associated with three-pulse IR echoes: the peak shift and 2D-IR spectrum. The agreement with experiment for the former is improved over our previous calculations, but discrepancies between theory and experiment still exist. Using our proposed definition for hydrogen bonding in liquid water, we decompose the distribution of frequencies in the OH stretch region in terms of subensembles of HOD molecules with different local hydrogen-bonding environments. Such a decomposition allows us to make the connection with experiments and calculations on water clusters and more generally to understand the extent of the relationship between transition frequency and local structure in the liquid.

Theoretical IR Spectra for Water Clusters (H2O)n (n = 6−22, 28, 30) and Identification of Spectral Contributions from Different H-Bond Conformations in Gaseous and Liquid Water

The vibrational IR spectra in the O-H stretching region are computed for water clusters containing 6-22, 28, and 30 molecules using quantum-chemical calculations (B3LYP and an augmented basis set). For the cluster with 20 molecules, several different structures were studied. The vibrational spectrum was partitioned into contributions from different molecules according to their coordination properties. The frequency shifts depend on the number of donated/accepted H-bonds primarily of the two molecules participating in the H-bond, but also of the surrounding molecules H-bonding to these molecules. The frequencies of H-bonds between two molecules of the same coordination type are spread over a broad interval. The most downshifted hydrogen-bond vibrations are those donated by a single-donor 3-coordinated molecule where the H-bond is accepted by a single-acceptor molecule. The H-bonded neighbors influence the downshift, and their contribution can be rationalized in the same way as for the central dimer. Single donors/acceptors cause larger downshifts than 4-coordinated molecules, and the least downshift is obtained for double donors/acceptors. This result is at variance with the conception that experimental liquid water spectra may be divided into components for which larger downshifts imply higher H-bond coordination. A mean spectral contribution for each coordination type for the donor molecule was derived and fitted to the experimental liquid water IR spectrum, which enabled an estimation of the distribution of H-bond types and average number of H-bonds (3.0 +/- 0.2) in the liquid.