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Published on: February 25, 2011
Molecular structure of alcohol-water mixtures
1Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. jguo@lbl.gov
Abstract:
We use x-ray emission spectroscopy to elucidate the molecular structure of liquid methanol, water, and methanol-water solutions. We find that molecules in the pure liquid methanol predominantly persist as hydrogen-bonded chains and rings with six and/or eight molecules of equal abundance. For water-methanol solutions we find evidence of incomplete mixing at the microscopic level. Our results provide a new explanation for a smaller entropy increase in the solution due to water molecules bridging methanol chains to form rings.
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