Study of microwave non-thermal effects on hydrogen bonding in water by Raman spectroscopy

Microwave chemistry plays an important role in organic synthesis. It has been debatable whether or not there are microwave non-thermal effects. Through analyzing the Raman spectra of pure water under two different heating methods (oil bath and microwave), the existence of microwave non-thermal effect is verified in this paper. The findings demonstrate that temperature has a significant impact on the Raman shift of the OH stretching band, which shifts to a high wave number as temperature rises and deforms the hydrogen bond (HB) network structure. Because microwave electric fields selectively heat water molecules (polar molecules) and destroy hydrogen bond structures in water, results in microwave heating more severe destruction of fully hydrogen-bonded structure than oil bath and transforms it more quickly into the partially hydrogen-bonded and free H₂O structure. Under the non-thermal effects of microwaves, hydrogen bonds that initially existed as stable tetrahedral structures are transformed into chain-like structures more rapidly. By comparing the Raman shift, it can be found that the microwave non-thermal effect can affect the hydrogen bonding in water for a long time (>1h). This study provides an experimental basis for enriching the mechanism of microwave non-thermal effects on hydrogen bonding.