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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 9, 2025

Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Interfacial Water with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy

Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Interfacial Water with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy

Published on: May 27, 2018

Rotational dive into the water clusters on a simple sugar substrate.

Amanda L Steber^1,2,3, Berhane Temelso⁴, Zbigniew Kisiel⁵

¹Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), D-22607 Hamburg, Germany.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|February 21, 2023

Summary

Water molecules form stable 3D structures around the smallest sugar, glycoaldehyde (Gly). These hydrogen bond networks mimic pure water clusters, even with microsolvation.

Keywords:

hydrogen bonding rotational spectroscopy solvation water clusters

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Area of Science:

Physical Chemistry
Chemical Physics
Biomolecular Chemistry

Background:

Biomolecular activity occurs in aqueous environments, influenced by water molecules and solute interactions.
Understanding the reciprocal influence between solutes and water's hydrogen bond networks is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the stepwise hydration of glycoaldehyde (Gly), the smallest sugar.
To determine how Gly shapes the structure and hydrogen bond network of solvating water clusters.
To explore the formation of 3D water topologies around organic molecules.

Main Methods:

Broadband rotational spectroscopy was employed to study the stepwise hydration of Gly with up to six water molecules.
Many-body decomposition analysis of interaction energy was used to rationalize hydrogen bond strengths.

Main Results:

Preferred 3D hydrogen bond networks form around Gly, with water self-aggregation observed even in early microsolvation stages.
The oxygen atom framework and hydrogen bond network of hydrated Gly resemble those of small 3D pure water clusters.
The prismatic pure water heptamer motif was identified in the pentahydrate and hexahydrate of Gly.

Conclusions:

Specific hydrogen bond networks in water clusters are preferred and persist during the solvation of small organic molecules like Gly.
The solvation of Gly by water demonstrates a mimicry of pure water cluster structures.
Experimental findings were corroborated by many-body decomposition analysis of interaction energy.