The distribution of acceptor and donor hydrogen-bonds in bulk liquid water

Crystal structure of 2-(methyl-amino)-tropone

The title compound, 2-(methyl-amino)-cyclo-hepta-2,4,6-trien-1-one, C8H9NO, crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P21/c, with three independent mol-ecules in the asymmetric unit. The planarity of the mol-ecules is indicated by planes fitted through the seven ring carbon atoms. Small deviations from the planes, with an extremal r.m.s. deviation of 0.0345 Å, are present. In complexes of transition metals with similar ligands, the large planar seven-membered aromatic rings have shown to improve the stability of the complex. Two types of hydrogen-bonding inter-actions, C-H⋯O and N-H⋯O, are observed, as well as bifurcation of these inter-actions. The N-H⋯O inter-actions link mol-ecules to form infinite chains. The packing of mol-ecules in the unit cell shows a pattern of overlapping aromatic rings, forming column-like formations. π-π inter-actions are observed between the overlapping aromatic rings at 3.4462 (19) Å from each other.

Water's dual nature and its continuously changing hydrogen bonds

A model is proposed for liquid water that is a continuum between the ordered state with predominantly tetrahedral coordination, linear hydrogen bonds and activated dynamics and a disordered state with a continuous distribution of multiple coordinations, multiple types of hydrogen bond, and diffusive dynamics, similar to that of normal liquids. Central to water's heterogeneous structure is the ability of hydrogen to donate to either one acceptor in a conventional linear hydrogen bond or to multiple acceptors as a furcated hydrogen. Linear hydrogen bonds are marked by slow, activated kinetics for hydrogen-bond switching to more crowded acceptors and sharp first peaks in the hydrogen-oxygen radial distribution function. Furcated hydrogens, equivalent to free, broken, dangling or distorted hydrogens, have barrierless, rapid kinetics and poorly defined first peaks in their hydrogen-oxygen radial distribution function. They involve the weakest donor in a local excess of donors, such that barrierless whole-molecule vibration rapidly swaps them between the linear and furcated forms. Despite the low number of furcated hydrogens and their transient existence, they are readily created in a single hydrogen-bond switch and free up the dynamics of numerous surrounding molecules, bringing about the disordered state. Hydrogens in the ordered state switch with activated dynamics to make the non-tetrahedral coordinations of the disordered state, which can also combine to make the ordered state. Consequently, the ordered and disordered states are both connected by diffusive dynamics and differentiated by activated dynamics, bringing about water's continuous heterogeneity.

Supramolecular sheets in (4H-chromeno[4,3-c]isoxazol-3-yl)methanol and its hydrated 8-methyl-substituted analogue at 100 K

The title compounds, (4H-chromeno[4,3-c]isoxazol-3-yl)methanol, C(11)H(9)NO(3), (I), and (8-methyl-4H-chromeno[4,3-c]isoxazol-3-yl)methanol monohydrate, C(12)H(11)NO(3)·H(2)O, (II), crystallize in the monoclinic space groups P2(1)/c and C2/c, respectively. The simple addition of a methyl substituent in (II) results in a change in the structure type and substantially alters the intermolecular interaction patterns, while retaining the point-group symmetry 2/m. Compound (II) crystallizes as a hydrate and the resulting hydrogen-bonding interactions involving the water molecule are the cause of differences in the hydrogen-bonded supramolecular motifs present in (I) and (II). The water molecule in (II) is disordered over two positions having very similar orientations, with occupancies of 0.571 (18) and 0.429 (18), although the pattern of hydrogen-bonding interactions for the two disordered water molecules remains essentially the same. In both compounds, the primary donor hydroxy group adopts a trans conformation with respect to the isoxazole O atom, with a torsion angle of 170.65 (8)° for (I) and 179.56 (10)° for (II), the small difference being due to differences in the hydrogen-bonding environment of the hydroxy group. In (I), molecules are linked through two independent O-H···N and C-H···O hydrogen bonds and form sheets of centrosymmetric R(4)(4)(18) and R(4)(4)(14) rings extending parallel to the (100) plane. The supramolecular motifs in (II) generate two-dimensional sheets parallel to the (100) plane through a combination of O-H···X (X = N, O) and C-H···O hydrogen bonds, leading to water-assisted noncentrosymmetric R(2)(2)(8) and R(6)(6)(20) motifs. The present work is an example of how the simple replacement of a substituent in the main molecular scaffold may transform the structure type, paving the way for a variety of supramolecular motifs and consequently altering the complexity of the intermolecular interaction patterns.

Liquid water: from symmetry distortions to diffusive motion

Water deviates from tetrahedral symmetry on different scales, creating "defects" that are important for its dynamics. In this Account, I trace the manifestations of these distortions from the isolated molecule through gas-phase clusters to the liquid phase. Unlike the common depiction, an isolated water molecule has a nonsymmetric charge distribution: although its positive charge is localized at the hydrogens, the negative charge is smeared between the lone-pair sites. This creates a "negativity track" along which a positive charge may slide. Consequently, the most facile motion within the water dimer is a reorientation of the hydrogen-bond (HB) accepting molecule (known as an "acceptor switch"), such that the donor hydrogen switches from one lone pair to the other. Liquid water exhibits asymmetry between donor and acceptor HBs. Molecular dynamics simulations show that the water oxygens accepting HBs from the central molecule are spatially localized, whereas water hydrogens donating HBs to it are distributed along the negativity track. This asymmetry is manifested in a wider acceptor- versus donor-HB distribution. There is a higher probability for a water molecule to accept one (trigonal symmetry) or three HBs than to donate one or three HBs. A simple model can explain semiquantitatively how these distributions evolve by distorting perfectly tetrahedral water. Just two reactions are required: the dissociation of a HB between a double-donor donating to a double-acceptor, D(2)···A(2), followed by a switching reaction in which a HB donor rotates its hydrogen between two double-acceptor molecules. The preponderance of D(2)···A(2) dissociation events is in line with HB "anticooperativity", whereas positive cooperativity is exhibited by conditional HB distributions: a molecule with more acceptor bonds tends to have more donor bonds and vice versa. Quantum mechanically, such an effect arises from intermolecular charge transfer, but it is observed even for fixed-charge water models. Possibly, in the liquid state this is partly a collective effect, for example, a more ordered hydration shell that enhances the probability for both acceptor and donor HBs. The activation energy for liquid water self-diffusion is considerably larger than its HB strength, pointing to the involvement of collective dynamics. The remarkable agreement between the temperature dependence of the water self-diffusion coefficient and its Debye relaxation time suggests that both share the same mechanism, likely consisting of coupled rotation and translation with collective rearrangement of the environment. The auto-correlation function of a hydrogen-bonded water molecule pair is depicted quantitatively by the solution of the diffusion equation for reversible geminate recombination, up to long times where the ubiquitous t(-3/2) power law prevails. From the model, one obtains the HB dissociation and formation rate coefficients and their temperature dependence. Both have a similar activation enthalpy, suggesting rapid formation of HBs with alternate partners, perhaps by the HB switching reaction involving the trigonal site. A detailed picture of how small fluctuations evolve into large-scale molecular motions in water remains elusive. Nonetheless, our results demonstrate how the plasticity of water can be traced to its asymmetric charge distribution, with duality between tetrahedral and trigonal ligation states.

Topological hydrogen-bond definition to characterize the structure and dynamics of liquid water

A definition that equates a hydrogen bond topologically with a local energy well in the potential energy surface is used to study the structure and dynamics of liquid water. We demonstrate the robustness of this hydrogen-bond definition versus the many other definitions which use fixed, arbitrary parameters, do not account for variable molecular environments, and cannot effectively resolve transition states. Our topology definition unambiguously shows that most water molecules are double acceptors but sizable proportions are single or triple acceptors. Almost all hydrogens are found to take part in hydrogen bonds. Broken hydrogen bonds only form when two molecules try to form two hydrogen bonds between them. The double acceptors have tetrahedral geometry, lower potential energy, entropy, and density, and slower dynamics. The single and triple acceptors have trigonal and trigonal bipyramidal geometry and when considered together have higher density, potential energy, and entropy, faster dynamics, and a tendency to cluster. These calculations use an extended theory for the entropy of liquid water that takes into account the variable number of hydrogen bonds. Hydrogen-bond switching is shown to depend explicitly on the variable number of hydrogen bonds accepted and the presence of interstitial water molecules. Transition state theory indicates that the switching of hydrogen bonds is a mildly activated process, requiring only a moderate distortion of hydrogen bonds. Three main types of switching events are observed depending on whether the donor and acceptor are already sharing a hydrogen bond. The switch may proceed with no intermediate or via a bifurcated-oxygen or cyclic dimer, both of which have a broken hydrogen bond and symmetric and asymmetric forms. Switching is found to be strongly coupled to whole-molecule vibration, particularly for the more mobile single and triple acceptors. Our analysis suggests that even though water is heterogeneous in terms of the number of hydrogen bonds, the coupling between neighbors on various length and time scales brings about greater continuity in its properties.

Theory for the three-dimensional Mercedes-Benz model of water

The two-dimensional Mercedes-Benz (MB) model of water has been widely studied, both by Monte Carlo simulations and by integral equation methods. Here, we study the three-dimensional (3D) MB model. We treat water as spheres that interact through Lennard-Jones potentials and through a tetrahedral Gaussian hydrogen bonding function. As the "right answer," we perform isothermal-isobaric Monte Carlo simulations on the 3D MB model for different pressures and temperatures. The purpose of this work is to develop and test Wertheim's Ornstein-Zernike integral equation and thermodynamic perturbation theories. The two analytical approaches are orders of magnitude more efficient than the Monte Carlo simulations. The ultimate goal is to find statistical mechanical theories that can efficiently predict the properties of orientationally complex molecules, such as water. Also, here, the 3D MB model simply serves as a useful workbench for testing such analytical approaches. For hot water, the analytical theories give accurate agreement with the computer simulations. For cold water, the agreement is not as good. Nevertheless, these approaches are qualitatively consistent with energies, volumes, heat capacities, compressibilities, and thermal expansion coefficients versus temperature and pressure. Such analytical approaches offer a promising route to a better understanding of water and also the aqueous solvation.

Reversible geminate recombination of hydrogen-bonded water molecule pair

The (history independent) autocorrelation function for a hydrogen-bonded water molecule pair, calculated from classical molecular dynamics trajectories of liquid water, exhibits a t(-3/2) asymptotic tail. Its whole time dependence agrees quantitatively with the solution for reversible diffusion-influenced geminate recombination derived by Agmon and Weiss [J. Chem. Phys. 91, 6937 (1989)]. Agreement with diffusion theory is independent of the precise definition of the bound state. Given the water self-diffusion constant, this theory enables us to determine the dissociation and bimolecular recombination rate parameters for a water dimer. (The theory is indispensable for obtaining the bimolecular rate coefficient.) Interestingly, the activation energies obtained from the temperature dependence of these rate coefficients are similar, rather than differing by the hydrogen-bond (HB) strength. This suggests that recombination requires displacing another water molecule, which meanwhile occupied the binding site. Because these activation energies are about twice the HB strength, cleavage of two HBs may be required to allow pair separation. The autocorrelation function without the HB angular restriction yields a recombination rate coefficient that is larger than that for rebinding to all four tetrahedral water sites (with angular restrictions), suggesting the additional participation of interstitial sites. Following dissociation, the probability of the pair to be unbound but within the reaction sphere rises more slowly than expected, possibly because binding to the interstitial sites delays pair separation. An extended diffusion model, which includes an additional binding site, can account for this behavior.