Probing the OH Stretch in Different Local Environments in Liquid Water

Y Harada; J Miyawaki; H Niwa; K Yamazoe; L G M Pettersson; A Nilsson

doi:10.1021/acs.jpclett.7b02060

Probing the OH Stretch in Different Local Environments in Liquid Water

J Phys Chem Lett. 2017 Nov 16;8(22):5487-5491. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.7b02060. Epub 2017 Nov 6.

Authors

Y Harada^{1

2

3}, J Miyawaki^{1

2

3}, H Niwa^{1

2}, K Yamazoe^{1

3}, L G M Pettersson⁴, A Nilsson⁴

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Solid State Physics, The University of Tokyo , 5-1-5, Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8581, Japan.
² Synchrotron Radiation Research Organization, The University of Tokyo , Tatsuno, Hyogo 679-5165, Japan.
³ Department of Advanced Materials Science, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo , 5-1-5, Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8561, Japan.
⁴ Department of Physics, AlbaNova University Center, Stockholm University , SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.

PMID: 29108417
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.7b02060

Abstract

We use resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) to resolve vibrational losses corresponding to the OH stretch where the X-ray absorption process allows us to selectively probe different structural subensembles in liquid water. The results point to a unified interpretation of X-ray and vibrational spectroscopic data in line with a picture of two classes of structural environments in the liquid at ambient conditions with predominantly close-packed high-density liquid (HDL) and occasional local fluctuations into strongly tetrahedral low-density liquid (LDL).