Isomer-Specific Spectroscopy of Benzene-(H2O)n, n = 6,7: Benzene's Role in Reshaping Water's Three-Dimensional Networks. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • The water hexamer and heptamer are the smallest sized water clusters that support three-dimensional hydrogen-bonded networks, with several competing structures that could be altered by interactions with a solute. Using infrared-ultraviolet double resonance spectroscopy, we record isomer-specific OH stretch infrared spectra of gas-phase benzene-(H2O)(6,7) clusters that demonstrate benzene's surprising role in reshaping (H2O)(6,7). The single observed isomer of benzene-(H2O)6 incorporates an inverted book structure rather than the cage or prism. The main conformer of benzene-(H2O)7 is an inserted-cubic structure in which benzene replaces one water molecule in the S4-symmetry cube of the water octamer, inserting itself into the water cluster by engaging as a H-bond acceptor with one water and via C-HO donor interactions with two others. The corresponding D(2d)-symmetry inserted-cube structure is not observed, consistent with the calculated energetic preference for the S4 over the D(2d) inserted cube. A reduced-dimension model that incorporates stretch-bend Fermi resonance accounts for the spectra in detail and sheds light on the hydrogen-bonding networks themselves and on the perturbations imposed on them by benzene.

published proceedings

  • J Phys Chem Lett

altmetric score

  • 0.25

author list (cited authors)

  • Tabor, D. P., Kusaka, R., Walsh, P. S., Sibert, E. L., & Zwier, T. S.

citation count

  • 42

complete list of authors

  • Tabor, Daniel P||Kusaka, Ryoji||Walsh, Patrick S||Sibert, Edwin L||Zwier, Timothy S

publication date

  • May 2015