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Updated: Jun 14, 2026

Multiscale Sampling of a Heterogeneous Water/Metal Catalyst Interface using Density Functional Theory and Force-Field Molecular Dynamics
Published on: April 12, 2019
Concerted hydrogen-bond dynamics in the transport mechanism of the hydrated proton: a first-principles molecular
Timothy C Berkelbach1, Hee-Seung Lee, Mark E Tuckerman
1Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA.
Abstract:
First-principles molecular dynamics calculations performed in a fully converged basis set are used to reveal new details about the mechanism of the anomalous proton-transport process in water, a fundamental question dating back over 200 years. By separating actual structural diffusion from simple rattling events, wherein a proton shuttles forth and back in a hydrogen bond, it is found that the former are driven by a concerted mechanism in which hydronium begins to accept a hydrogen bond from a donor water molecule while the proton-receiving water molecule simultaneously loses one of its acceptor hydrogen bonds. The kinetics of the process are found to be in good agreement with recent experiments.
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