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Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Computation of Atmospheric Concentrations of Molecular Clusters from ab initio Thermochemistry
Published on: April 8, 2020
Do hydroxyl radical-water clusters, OH(H2O)n, n = 1-5, exist in the atmosphere?
Marco A Allodi1, Meghan E Dunn, Jovan Livada
1Department of Chemistry, Hamilton College, Clinton, New York 13323, USA.
Abstract:
It has been speculated that the presence of OH(H2O)n clusters in the troposphere could have significant effects on the solar absorption balance and the reactivity of the hydroxyl radical. We have used the G3 and G3B3 model chemistries to model the structures and predict the frequencies of hydroxyl radical/water clusters containing one to five water molecules. The reaction between hydroxyl radical clusters and methane was examined as a function of water cluster size to gain an understanding of how cluster size affects the hydroxyl radical reactivity.
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