Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 27, 2026

Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Interfacial Water with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy
Published on: May 27, 2018
Temperature dependence of isotopic quantum effects in water
R T Hart1, C J Benmore, J Neuefeind
1Intense Pulsed Neutron Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
Abstract:
The technique of high energy x-ray diffraction has been used to measure the temperature variation of hydrogen versus deuterium isotopic quantum effects on the structure of water. The magnitude of the effect is found to be inversely proportional to the temperature, varying by a factor of 2.5 over the range 6 to 45 degrees C. In addition, the H216O versus H218O effect has been measured at 26 degrees C and the structural difference shown to be restricted to the nearest neighbor molecular interactions. The results are compared to recent simulations and previously measured isochoric temperature differentials; additionally, implications for H/D substitution experiments are considered.
Related Concept Videos
Enthalpy
Hess's Law
Heating and Cooling Curves
For instance, the addition of heat raises the temperature of a solid; the amount of heat absorbed depends on the heat capacity of the solid (q = mcsolidΔT). According to thermochemistry, the relation between the amount of heat absorbed or released by a substance, q, and its...
Atomic Nuclei: Nuclear Spin State Population Distribution
¹H NMR of Conformationally Flexible Molecules: Variable-Temperature NMR
Atomic Spectroscopy: Effects of Temperature
At thermal equilibrium, the relative populations of excited and ground state atoms can be estimated using the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution. For example, an increase in temperature from...

