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Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Interfacial Water with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy
Published on: May 27, 2018
Structural diversity in sodium doped water trimers
Richard M Forck1, Johannes M Dieterich, Christoph C Pradzynski
1Institut für Physikalische Chemie, Universität Göttingen, Tammannstr. 6, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics : PCCP
|May 30, 2012
Summary
Sodium doped water trimers adopt an open ring structure, explaining key infrared spectra. Other isomers exist, with sodium often found on the surface of larger water clusters.
Area of Science:
- Physical Chemistry
- Spectroscopy
- Computational Chemistry
Background:
- Water clusters are fundamental to understanding water's properties.
- Doping with alkali metals like sodium provides insights into cluster behavior and solvation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To characterize the structures of sodium-doped water trimers.
- To correlate structural isomers with infrared (IR) action spectra.
- To investigate sodium atom's position within water clusters.
Main Methods:
- Infrared (IR) action spectroscopy in the OH-stretching region.
- Global optimization approach to identify low-energy structures.
- Analysis of vertical ionization energies.
Main Results:
- The most stable structure is an open ring with two terminal water molecules contacting the sodium atom.
- This structure correlates with a dominant IR feature at 3410 cm(-1).
- Three additional isomer classes were identified within a 12 kJ mol(-1) energy window, exhibiting varied hydrogen bonding and sodium coordination.
Conclusions:
- The study elucidates the structural landscape of sodium water trimers.
- Observed spectral features are directly linked to specific structural motifs.
- For larger clusters, sodium is likely located on the cluster surface, similar to undoped trimers.
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