Water behavior in perfluorinated ion-exchange membranes

The water molecules in acid and salt forms of perfluorinated sulfocation membranes (MF-4SK) have been investigated by employing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques. The mobility parameters, correlation time and activation energy of water molecules were estimated from the results of the temperature dependence of¹H relaxation time and compared with water self-diffusion coefficients obtained with pulsed field gradient NMR. The NMR data showed no frozen unbound water in membranes at low water content with an amount of water molecules per sulfonate groupn being comparable to the cationic hydration numberh _o, whereas DSC thermograms showed peaks which are usually interpreted as a water fusion phenomenon in the membranes. The diffusion mechanism of water molecules below 260 K is different from that above 300 K due to additional hydrogen bonds in water clusters at the low-temperature region.     

Water molecules migration at oil–paper interface under the coupling fields of electric and temperature: a molecular dynamics study

Moisture is an important factor affecting the insulation properties of transformers. Due to the limitations of macroscopic experimental methods, the diffusion of water at oil–paper interface cannot be accurately measured. Therefore, molecular dynamics method was used in this work to establish oil–paper layer model of 10⁵ atoms. Through jointly analysing the aggregation degree, diffusion coefficient, free volume as well as radial distribution function of water molecules, the diffusion mechanism of water molecules at oil–paper interface was studied. The results show that when the initial water content in paper was high, water molecules would accumulate at oil–paper interface to form the local high-water region during heating. The polarisation of the electric field strengthened the hydrogen bonding interaction between water molecules and increased the probability of occurrence of the high-water region. Meanwhile, electric field reduced the free volume and diffusion coefficient of water molecules and rendered its diffusion coefficient anisotropic. What’s more, when the electric field was combined with the temperature field, the electric field played a leading role in the diffusion of water molecules while the temperature field was less affected. Diffusion coefficients of water molecules at different temperatures from molecular dynamics simulations were well consistent with experimental results, which verified the rationality of the model.     

Molecular mechanism of gelation upon the addition of water to a solution of poly(acrylonitrile) in dimethylsulfoxide

The solidification of a solution of poly(acrylonitrile) (PAN) in dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) upon introduction of water into the solution is studied by Raman spectroscopy. In the absence of water, DMSO molecules are found to produce dipole-dipole bonds with PAN molecules. Upon the introduction of water, DMSO molecules produce hydrogen bonds with it and bands at 1005 and 1015 cm⁻¹ appear in the Raman spectrum, which are assigned to the valence vibrations of S=O bonds involved in the hydrogen bonds. Simultaneously, water molecules produce hydrogen bonds with PAN molecules: R-C≡N...H-O-H...N≡C-R, where R is the carbon skeleton of a PAN molecule. Accordingly, a band at 2250 cm⁻¹ arises in the Raman spectrum, which is assigned to the valence vibrations of C≡N bonds producing hydrogen bonds with a water molecule. When the water content is low and the DMSO concentration is high, the length of the hydrogen bonds varies in wide limits and the band at 2250 cm⁻¹ is wide. As the water content rises, DMSO molecules come out of PAN, the variation of the hydrogen bond length in it decreases (the band at 2250 cm⁻¹ narrows), and a high-viscosity system (gel) arises that consists of PAN molecules bonded to water molecules via “equally strong” hydrogen bonds.     

The adsorption of water on clean and oxygen covered Cu(110)

The water adsorption on clean and oxygen precovered Cu(110) surfaces is studied by means of UPS, LEED, work function measurements and ELS. At 90 K on the clean surface molecular water adsorption is indicated by UPS. The H₂O molecules are bonded at the oxygen end and the H-O-H angle is increased as compared with the free molecule. In the temperature range between 90 and 300 K distorted H₂O molecules and adsorbed hydroxyl species (OH) are detected, which are desorbed at room temperature. On an oxygen covered surface hydroxyl groups are formed by dissociation of adsorbed water molecules at a lower temperature than on the clean surface. Multilayers of condensed water are found below 140 K in both cases.     

碳纳米胶囊中水分子的分子动力学研究

采用分子动力学方法研究了不同温度下碳纳米胶囊中水分子及其氢键的聚集密度分布,讨论了水分子内部键角及其取向规律.计算结果表明,由于碳纳米胶囊的束缚作用,水分子主要聚集在与胶囊形状相似的三个薄层中,随着温度的升高,聚集密度峰均会展宽并向管壁移动.氢键的分布规律与水分子聚集密度类似并对其取向角分布有明显影响.与通常情况不同,在1000K高温时仍存在相当数量的氢键.在3100 K附近,碳纳米胶囊发生破裂,溢出少量水分子后自动愈合.     

Chemical reactions of water molecules on Ru(0 0 0 1) induced by selective excitation of vibrational modes

Tunneling electrons in a scanning tunneling microscope were used to excite specific vibrational quantum states of adsorbed water and hydroxyl molecules on a Ru(0 0 0 1) surface. The excited molecules relaxed by transfer of energy to lower energy modes, resulting in diffusion, dissociation, desorption, and surface-tip transfer processes. Diffusion of H₂O molecules could be induced by excitation of the O-H stretch vibration mode at 445 meV. Isolated molecules required excitation of one single quantum while molecules bonded to a C atom required at least two quanta. Dissociation of single H₂O molecules into H and OH required electron energies of 1 eV or higher while dissociation of OH required at least 2 eV electrons. In contrast, water molecules forming part of a cluster could be dissociated with electron energies of 0.5 eV.     

Structure and dynamics of water at liquid–vapour interfaces covered by surfactant monolayers of neutral stearic acid and charged stearate ions

The behaviour of water molecules at liquid–vapour interfaces with a surfactant monolayer of either stearic acid molecules or anionic stearate ions is investigated by means of molecular dynamics simulations. The density and dipolar orientational profiles and also the dynamics of translational and rotational motion of interfacial water molecules are calculated in the present work and the results are compared with the bulk liquid water and also of liquid–vapour interface of surfactant-free water. The present simulation results are also compared with available experimental results of similar interfacial systems with a monolayer of either neutral or ionic surfactants.     

Self-association behaviour of alcohols in diluted aqueous solutions

Summary Our recent studies related to the properties of alcohol/water mixtures show the occurrence of some kind of molecular aggregation in the water-rich region of composition beyond a threshold alcohol concentrationx ₂ ^*. The observed behaviour suggests that forx ₂<x ₂ ^* the alcohol molecules are essentially dispersed and surrounded by ?water cages? where the short-range order and microdynamic of water molecules are changed with respect to those of pure water. Alcohol molecules are in mutual contact at higher concentration only when almost all water is involved in hydration shells of alcohol molecules. The structural transition atx ₂ ^* resembles, for some aspect, the micellization process. The main results of these investigations are reviewed and discussed in this paper. Paper presented at the I International Conference on Scaling Concepts and Complex Fluids, Copanello, Italy, July 4–8 1994     

The Structure of Water Clusters Interacting with Gaseous Acetylene

The interaction of water clusters with acetylene molecules at T = 230 K was studied by the molecular dynamics method. The structure of clusters was analyzed by constructing Voronoi polyhedra. Water clusters interacting with C₂H₂ molecules are characterized by a diversity of H-bond orientations, a more uniform distribution of H-bonds over the cluster volume, a larger number of bonds per atom, and smaller bond lengths. The spectrum of bond lengths broadens as the number of acetylene molecules interacting with the water cluster increases. C₂H₂ molecules have a pressing action on water clusters.     

Self-diffusion of water and benzene molecules adsorbed in synthetic opal samples

The self-diffusion of adsorbed molecules of water and benzene in porous synthetic opals has been studied by pulsed field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance. The study indicates two “phases” of water molecules differing by the self-diffusion coefficients, indicating two types of porosities existing in the synthetic opals. The smallest self-diffusion coefficient characterizes water in ultramicropores found on the surface of nanospheres. The form of the diffusion decay depends on temperature in the region of high temperatures as a result of exchange between pores of different sizes. The ultramicropores are inaccessible for the largest benzene molecules. Water adsorption and self-diffusion data confirm that annealing of the opal samples at 1293 K caused the collapse of ultramicropores.     

Selective adsorption of water spin isomers under laser excitation

The experiment on water molecule adsorption on the surface of nanoporous polymeric adsorbent in the Knudsenmode under conditions of selective action of IR radiation is described. Resonant excitation of the vibrational-rotational transition of the ortho-modification of H₂O molecules at a wavelength of 1.85 µm is used. The applicability of this method to the production of water vapor with nonequilibrium concentration ratios of ortho and para modifications of water molecules is shown.     

N-正丁基苯胺的13C自旋晶格弛豫研究

本文采用反转回复法(180°-τ-90°-Τ)_n脉冲序列测定了N-正丁基苯胺在两种温度下,各¹³C核总的自旋-晶格弛豫时间T₁和NOE因子η_с值,通过计算估计了各种弛豫机理的贡献大小,并求出了分子无规则运动的相关时间τ_с,进一步讨论了此分子的动力学状况。     

Backward Terahertz Radiation from a Two-Color Femtosecond Laser Filament

A change in the quasistatic magnetic susceptibility in thin plates of iron borate (FeBO₃), which is a weak ferromagnet, has been revealed at adsorption of water molecules. The measurements have been performed at room temperature with the use of the magneto-optical Faraday effect. The change of the susceptibility in saturated water vapors is about 30%. The observed effect is reversible. The time of establishing the susceptibility after the introduction of water vapors is 1.5 min, which is twice as large as the time of establishing the susceptibility after the evacuation. The effect is explained by the appearance of uniaxial surface magnetic anisotropy in the basal plane because of the adsorption of water molecules.     

Molecular dynamics study on water self-diffusion in aqueous mixtures of methanol,ethylene glycol and glycerol: investigations from the point of view of hydrogen bonding

Molecular dynamics simulations have been performed to investigate the aqueous binary mixtures of alcohols, including methanol, ethylene glycol (EG) and glycerol of molalities ranging from 1 to 5 m at the temperatures of 273, 288 and 298 K, respectively. The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate the mechanism of water self-diffusion in water-alcohol mixtures from the point of view of hydrogen bonding. The effects of temperature and concentration on water self-diffusion coefficient are evaluated quantitatively in this work. Temperature and concentration to some extent affect the hydrogen bonding statistics and dynamics of the binary mixtures. It is shown that the self-diffusion coefficient of water molecules decreases as the concentration increases or the temperature decreases. Moreover, calculations of mean square displacements of water molecules initially with different number n of H-bonds indicate that the water self-diffusion coefficient decreases as n increases. We also studied the aggregation of alcohol molecules by the hydrophobic alkyl groups. The largest cluster size of the alkyl groups clearly increases as the concentration increases, implying the emergence of a closely connected network of water and alcohols. The clusters of water and alcohol that interacted could block the movement of water molecules in binary mixtures. These findings provide insight into the mechanisms of water self-diffusion in aqueous binary mixtures of methanol, EG and glycerol.     

Nano-sized local magnetic field induced by circular motion of ions and molecules in a nanotorus under gigahertz rotating electric fields

Recently, we reported molecular dynamics simulations of stable cyclotron motions of ions and water molecules in a carbon nanotorus, induced by different rotating electric fields (EFs). This study is devoted to the calculation and characterisation of the magnetic field (MF) induced by these cyclotron motions. Results show that carbon nanotorus containing ions or water molecules acts as an EF-to-MF transducer. Components of the instantaneous induced MF show large-scale oscillations superimposed by strong fluctuations arising respectively from overall circular motion and random collisions of moving species. Analysis of the space-dependencies of the induced MF components shows that the induced MF is maximum at the centre of the nanotorus. The MF induced by cyclotron motion of ions follows the orders B(Ca²⁺)?>?B(Na⁺)?≈?B(K⁺) at E?=?1.0?V/nm and B(E?=?1.0?V/nm)?>?B(E?=?0.5?V/nm)?>?B(E?=?0.1?V/nm). The time-averaged induced MF of the cyclotron motion of 81 water molecules is almost 10² times stronger than that of ions. The induced MF strength is decreased with increasing distance from nanotorus and decays effectively at about 17.3–18.1 and 15.9–18.2?nm along the z-axis of the nanotorus for ions and water molecules, respectively. The magnitude of the MF induced by cyclotron motions of water molecules and ions, respectively, decreases and increases in the nanotorus with freed carbon atoms.     

Qualitative assessment of ultra-fast non-Grotthuss proton dynamics in S<Subscript>1</Subscript> excited state of liquid H<Subscript>2</Subscript>O from ab initio time-dependent density functional theory

We study qualitatively ultra-fast proton transfer (PT) in the first singlet (S₁) state of liquid water (absorption onset) through excited-state dynamics by means of time-dependent density functional theory and ab initio Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics. We find that after the initial excitation, a PT occurs in S₁ in form of a rapid jump to a neighboring water molecule, on which the proton either may rest for a relatively long period of time (as a consequence of possible defect in the hydrogen bond network) followed by back and forth hops to its neighboring water molecule or from which it further moves to the next water molecule accompanied by back and forth movements. In this way, the proton may become delocalized over a long water wire branch, followed again by back and forth jumps or short localization on a water molecule for some femtoseconds. As a result, the mechanism of PT in S₁ is in most cases highly non-Grotthuss-like, delayed and discrete. Furthermore, upon PT an excess charge is ejected to the solvent trap, the so-called solvated electron. The spatial extent of the ejected solvated electron is mainly localized within one solvent shell with overlappings on the nearest neighbor water molecules and delocalizing (diffuse) tails extending beyond the first solvent sphere. During the entire ultra-short excited-state dynamics the remaining OH radical from the initially excited water molecule exhibits an extremely low mobility and is non-reactive.     

Phase transitions of interfacial water at 165 and 240 K. Connections to bulk water physics and protein dynamics

We are considering water adsorbed as a monolayer on Vycor, a porous silica glass. The interfacial water molecules interact with the substrate through hydrogen bonding with the numerous silanol (Si-OH) groups present all over the surface. This special form of water exhibits peculiar dynamical properties. A combined calorimetric, diffraction, high resolution quasi-elastic and inelastic neutron scattering study shows that interfacial water experiences a glass transition at 165 K and a liquid-liquid transition at 240 K from a low-density to a high density-liquid. We show that this unusual behaviour, compared to the bulk, is due to a strong weakening of the hydrogen-bond strength, possibly due to the reduced number of hydrogen-bonds engaged by water molecules when they are in an interfacial two dimensional situation. The connections of these findings to the physics of bulk water and protein dynamics are discussed.     

Simulation Study on the Structure and Dynamics of Water in Sodium Tetrafluoroborate/Water

应用分子动力学模拟方法研究了室温条件下四氟硼酸钠(NaBF₄)/水混合体系中水分子的微观结构、IR光谱以及转动动力学. 考察了混合物体系中水分子的摩尔分数浓度分别为6.25%、25.0%、50.0%、75.0%、90.0% 和99.6%时体系的结构和动力学性质. 研究显示在不同水分子含量的混合物中水分子以自由分子存在,随着混合物中水分子摩尔分数的增加,水分子的转动和弯曲振动带红移,而O-H伸缩振动蓝移,混合物中水分子内和分子间的氢键和非谐性相互作用增强,分子平动和转动变得困难和缓慢,研究结果与实验观测一致.     

Study of vibrational spectra of lanthanum sulphate nonahydrate at different temperatures in the region from 4000–50 cm−1

Infrared spectra of lanthanum sulphate nonahydrate are studied over the 4000–50 cm⁻¹ range. The bands pertaining to different internal and external modes of sulphate ion and water molecules are observed and assigned. It is shown that coordinated water molecules exist at two site symmetries C₁ and C_i, which provides confirmation of crystallographic data. Lattice water is not found in these crystals. The effect of low temperature on librational modes of coordinated water and their lattice vibrations are studied in the 550–50 cm⁻¹ region. The potential force field constants are calculated for rocking, wagging and twisting librational modes of water at 290 K, 80 K and 60 K. The higher value of the potential constant for the rocking mode from the wagging librational mode shows the in-plane bend of the hydrogen bond in lanthanum sulphate crystals.     

Untersuchungen der protonenresonanz von adsorbiertem wasser an zeolithen des faujasit-typs mit verschiedenen silicium-aluminium-verhältnissen

The line-widths of the proton magnetic resonance have been studied over the possible range of water contents of faujasite-type zeolites for ten samples with different silicium/ aluminium ratio between 1.18 and 2.5. The results show that the mobility of the sorbed water molecules at low coverages is restricted with increasing Si/Al ratio. This effect can be described by a picture of many flat potential wells for low Si/Al ratios and a few deep potential wells at high Si/Al ratios at the surface of the large cavities of the zeolite. The sorbed molecules at intermediate and high water contents rapidly exchange their protons with the sorbed molecules or possibly with OH groups at the walls of the cavities over hydrogen bonds. The line-widths at higher water contents therefore can be explained by an averaging process of the protons of the mobile water molecules with the molecules sorbed at the surface.