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Updated: Dec 15, 2025

Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Interfacial Water with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy
Published on: May 27, 2018
Revealing excess protons in the infrared spectrum of liquid water
Vasily G Artemov1, Ece Uykur2, Seulki Roh2
1Center for Energy Science and Technology, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, Russia, 121205. v.artemov@skoltech.ru.
Abstract:
The most common species in liquid water, next to neutral [Formula: see text] molecules, are the [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] ions. In a dynamic picture, their exact concentrations depend on the time scale at which these are probed. Here, using a spectral-weight analysis, we experimentally resolve the fingerprints of the elusive fluctuations-born short-living [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text] ions in the IR spectra of light ([Formula: see text]), heavy ([Formula: see text]), and semi-heavy (HDO) water. We find that short-living ions, with concentrations reaching [Formula: see text] of the content of water molecules, coexist with long-living pH-active ions on the picosecond timescale, thus making liquid water an effective ionic liquid in femtochemistry.
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