Computer simulation of the structure of water clusters containing absorbed ethane molecules

The structure of water clusters that have absorbed ethane molecules is studied by the molecular dynamics method. Structural analysis is performed by the construction of Voronoi polyheda for oxygen atoms and hybrid polyheda whose centers coincide with the centers of oxygen atoms and the faces are formed according to the positions of hydrogen atoms. The (H₂O)₂₀ cluster can retain no more than four ethane molecules remaining at the same time stable. When a water cluster adds more than four ethane molecules, the volumes of Voronoi polyheda acquire values close to the volume per molecule in the bulk liquid water. As the number of ethane molecules in a water cluster increases, the number of hydrogen atoms adjacent to oxygen, as well as the average number of units in cyclic formations composed of hydrogen atoms, also increases. In this case, the number of H-O-H angles formed by the nearest geometric neighbors close to 89° becomes dominant. The coefficient of nonsphericity reflecting the local arrangement of hydrogen atoms around the oxygen atoms decreases as the C₂H₆ molecules are added to water cluster and approaches to the value of this coefficient for the rhombic dodecahedron in the case of adsorption of six ethane molecules.