Hydrogen bonding at the water surface revealed by isotopic dilution spectroscopy.

The air-water interface is perhaps the most common liquid interface. It covers more than 70 per cent of the Earth's surface and strongly affects atmospheric, aerosol and environmental chemistry. The air-water interface has also attracted much interest as a model system that allows rigorous tests of theory, with one fundamental question being just how thin it is. Theoretical studies have suggested a surprisingly short 'healing length' of about 3 ångströms (1 Å = 0.1 nm), with the bulk-phase properties of water recovered within the top few monolayers. However, direct experimental evidence has been elusive owing to the difficulty of depth-profiling the liquid surface on the ångström scale. Most physical, chemical and biological properties of water, such as viscosity, solvation, wetting and the hydrophobic effect, are determined by its hydrogen-bond network. This can be probed by observing the lineshape of the OH-stretch mode, the frequency shift of which is related to the hydrogen-bond strength. Here we report a combined experimental and theoretical study of the air-water interface using surface-selective heterodyne-detected vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy to focus on the 'free OD' transition found only in the topmost water layer. By using deuterated water and isotopic dilution to reveal the vibrational coupling mechanism, we find that the free OD stretch is affected only by intramolecular coupling to the stretching of the other OD group on the same molecule. The other OD stretch frequency indicates the strength of one of the first hydrogen bonds encountered at the surface; this is the donor hydrogen bond of the water molecule straddling the interface, which we find to be only slightly weaker than bulk-phase water hydrogen bonds. We infer from this observation a remarkably fast onset of bulk-phase behaviour on crossing from the air into the water phase.

Surface of liquid water: three-body interactions and vibrational sum-frequency spectroscopy.

Phase-sensitive vibrational sum-frequency experiments on the water surface, using isotopic mixtures of water and heavy water, have recently been performed. The experiments show a positive feature at low frequency in the imaginary part of the susceptibility, which has been difficult to interpret, and impossible to reproduce using two-body (pairwise-additive) water simulation models. We have reparameterized a new three-body simulation model for liquid water, and with this model we calculate the imaginary part of the sum-frequency susceptibility, finding good agreement with experiment for dilute HOD in D(2)O. Theoretical analysis provides a molecular-level structural interpretation of these new and exciting experiments. In particular, we do not find evidence of any special ice-like ordering at the surface of liquid water.

Vibrational spectroscopy of water in hydrated lipid multi-bilayers. II. Two-dimensional infrared and peak shift observables within different theoretical approximations.

In a previous report, we calculated the infrared absorption spectrum and both the isotropic and anisotropic pump-probe signals for the OD stretch of isotopically dilute water in dilauroylphosphatidylcholine (DLPC) multi-bilayers as a function of the lipid hydration level. These results were then compared to recent experimental measurements and are in generally good agreement. In this paper, we will further investigate the structure and dynamics of hydration water using molecular dynamics simulations and calculations of the two-dimensional infrared and vibrational echo peak shift observables for hydration water in DLPC membranes. These observables have not yet been measured experimentally, but future comparisons may provide insight into spectral diffusion processes and hydration water heterogeneity. We find that at low hydration levels the motion of water molecules inside the lipid membrane is significantly arrested, resulting in very slow spectral diffusion. At higher hydration levels, spectral diffusion is more rapid, but still slower than in bulk water. We also investigate the effects of several common approximations on the calculation of spectroscopic observables by computing these observables within multiple levels of theory. The impact of these approximations on the resulting spectra affects our interpretation of these measurements and reveals that, for example, the cumulant approximation, which may be valid for certain systems, is not a good approximation for a highly heterogeneous environment such as hydration water in lipid multi-bilayers.

Chasing charge localization and chemical reactivity following photoionization in liquid water.

The ultrafast dynamics of the cationic hole formed in bulk liquid water following ionization is investigated by ab initio molecular dynamics simulations and an experimentally accessible signature is suggested that might be tracked by femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy. This is one of the fastest fundamental processes occurring in radiation-induced chemistry in aqueous systems and biological tissue. However, unlike the excess electron formed in the same process, the nature and time evolution of the cationic hole has been hitherto little studied. Simulations show that an initially partially delocalized cationic hole localizes within ~30 fs after which proton transfer to a neighboring water molecule proceeds practically immediately, leading to the formation of the OH radical and the hydronium cation in a reaction which can be formally written as H(2)O(+) + H(2)O → OH + H(3)O(+). The exact amount of initial spin delocalization is, however, somewhat method dependent, being realistically described by approximate density functional theory methods corrected for the self-interaction error. Localization, and then the evolving separation of spin and charge, changes the electronic structure of the radical center. This is manifested in the spectrum of electronic excitations which is calculated for the ensemble of ab initio molecular dynamics trajectories using a quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM∕MM) formalism applying the equation of motion coupled-clusters method to the radical core. A clear spectroscopic signature is predicted by the theoretical model: as the hole transforms into a hydroxyl radical, a transient electronic absorption in the visible shifts to the blue, growing toward the near ultraviolet. Experimental evidence for this primary radiation-induced process is sought using femtosecond photoionization of liquid water excited with two photons at 11 eV. Transient absorption measurements carried out with ~40 fs time resolution and broadband spectral probing across the near-UV and visible are presented and direct comparisons with the theoretical simulations are made. Within the sensitivity and time resolution of the current measurement, a matching spectral signature is not detected. This result is used to place an upper limit on the absorption strength and/or lifetime of the localized H(2)O(+) ((aq)) species.

Degree of initial hole localization/delocalization in ionized water clusters.

The electronic structure of ionized bulk liquid water presents a number of theoretical challenges. Not the least of these is the realization that the detailed geometry of the hydrogen bonding network is expected to have a strong effect on the electronic couplings between water molecules and thus the degree of delocalization of the initially ionized system. This problem is approached from a cluster perspective where a high-level coupled cluster description of the electronic structure is still possible. Building on the work and methodology developed for the water dimer cation [J. Phys. Chem. A 2008, 112, 6159], the character and spectrum of electronic states of the water hole and their evolution from the dimer into higher clusters is presented. As the time evolution of the initially formed hole can in principle be followed by the system's transient absorption spectrum, the state spacings and transition strengths are computed. An analysis involving Dyson orbitals is applied and shows a partially delocalized nature of states. The issue of conformation disorder in the hydrogen bonding geometry is addressed for the water dimer cation.

A new electronic structure method for doublet states: configuration interaction in the space of ionized 1h and 2h1p determinants.

An implementation of gradient and energy calculations for configuration interaction variant of equation-of-motion coupled cluster with single and double substitutions for ionization potentials (EOM-IP-CCSD) is reported. The method (termed IP-CISD) treats the ground and excited doublet electronic states of an N-electron system as ionizing excitations from a closed-shell N+1-electron reference state. The method is naturally spin adapted, variational, and size intensive. The computational scaling is N(5), in contrast with the N(6) scaling of EOM-IP-CCSD. The performance and capabilities of the new approach are demonstrated by application to the uracil cation and water and benzene dimer cations by benchmarking IP-CISD against more accurate IP-CCSD. The equilibrium geometries, especially relative differences between different ionized states, are well reproduced. The average absolute errors and the standard deviations averaged for all bond lengths in all electronic states (58 values in total) are 0.014 and 0.007 A, respectively. IP-CISD systematically underestimates intramolecular distances and overestimates intermolecular ones, because of the underlying uncorrelated Hartree-Fock reference wave function. The IP-CISD excitation energies of the cations are of a semiquantitative value only, showing maximum errors of 0.35 eV relative to EOM-IP-CCSD. Trends in properties such as dipole moments, transition dipoles, and charge distributions are well reproduced by IP-CISD.

Electronic structure of liquid water from polarization-dependent two-photon absorption spectroscopy.

Two-photon absorption (2PA) spectroscopy in the range from 7 to 10 eV provides new insight on the electronic structure of liquid water. Continuous 2PA spectra are obtained via the pump-probe technique, using broadband probe pulses to record the absorption at many wavelengths simultaneously. A preresonance enhancement of the absolute 2PA cross section is observed when the pump-photon energy increases from 4.6 to 6.2 eV. The absorption cross section also depends on the relative polarization of the pump and probe photons. The variation of the polarization ratio across the spectrum reveals a detailed picture of the 2PA and indicates that at least four different transitions play a role below 10 eV. Theoretical polarization ratios for the isolated molecule illustrate the value of the experimental polarization measurement in deciphering the 2PA spectrum and provide the framework for a simple simulation of the liquid spectrum. A more comprehensive model goes beyond the isolated molecule picture and connects the 2PA spectrum with previous one-photon absorption, photoelectron, and x-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements of liquid water. Previously unresolved, overlapping transitions are assigned for the first time. Finally, the electronic character of the vertical excited states is related to the energy-dependent ionization mechanism of liquid water.

Electronic structure of the water dimer cation.

The spectroscopic signatures of proton transfer in the water dimer cation were investigated. The six lowest electronic states were characterized along the reaction coordinate using the equation-of-motion coupled-cluster with single and double substitutions method for ionized systems. The nature of the dimer states was explained in terms of the monomer states using a qualitative molecular orbital framework. We found that proton transfer induces significant changes in the electronic spectrum, thus suggesting that time-resolved electronic femtosecond spectroscopy is an effective strategy to monitor the dynamics following ionization. The electronic spectra at vertical and proton-transferred configurations include both local excitations (features similar to those of the monomers) and charge-transfer bands. Ab initio calculations were used to test the performance of a self-interaction correction for density functional theory (DFT). The corrected DFT/BLYP method is capable of quantitatively reproducing the proper energetic ordering of the (H2O)2(+) isomers and thus is a reasonable approach for calculations of larger systems.

Charge localization and Jahn-Teller distortions in the benzene dimer cation.

Jahn-Teller (JT) distortions and charge localization in the benzene dimer cation are analyzed using the equation-of-motion coupled cluster with single and double substitutions for ionization potential (EOM-IP-CCSD) method. Ionization of the dimer changes the bonding from noncovalent to covalent and induces significant geometrical distortions, e.g., shorter interfragment distance and JT displacements. Relaxation along interfragment coordinates lowers the energy of the t-shaped and displaced sandwich isomers by 0.07 and 0.23 eV, respectively, whereas JT displacements result in additional 0.18 and 0.23 eV. Energetically, the effect of JT distortion on the dimer is similar to the monomer where JT relaxation lowers the energy by 0.18 eV. While the change in the interfragment distance has dramatic spectroscopic consequences, the JT distortion causes only a small perturbation in the electronic spectra. The two geometrical relaxations in the t-shaped isomer lead to opposing effects on hole localization. Intermolecular relaxation leads to an increased delocalization, whereas JT ring distortion localizes the charge. In the sandwich isomers, breaking the symmetry by ring rotation does not induce considerable charge localization. The optimization and property calculations were performed using a new implementation of EOM-IP-CCSD energies and gradients in the Q-CHEM electronic structure package.

Dynamics of water confined in reversed micelles: multidimensional vibrational spectroscopy study.

Here we perform a comprehensive study of ultrafast molecular and vibrational dynamics of water confined in small reversed micelles (RMs). The molecular picture is elucidated with two-dimensional infrared (2D IR) spectroscopy of water OH stretch vibrations and molecular dynamics simulations, bridged by theoretical calculations of linear and 2D IR vibrational spectra. To investigate the effects of intermolecular coupling, experiments and modeling are performed for isotopically diluted (HDO in D2O) and undiluted (H2O) water. We put a separation of water inside RMs into two subensembles (water-bound and surfactant-bound molecules), observed by many before, on a solid theoretical basis. Water molecules fully attached to the lipid interface ("shell" water) are decoupled from one another and from the central water nanopool ("core" water). The environmental fluctuations are largely "frozen" for the shell water, while the core waters demonstrate much faster dynamics but still not as fast as in the bulk case. A substantial nanoconfinement effect on the dynamics of the core water is observed after disentanglement of the shell water contribution, which is fully confirmed by the simulations of 2D IR spectra. Current results provide new insights into interaction between biological objects like membranes or proteins with the surrounding aqueous bath, and highlight peculiarities in vibrational energy redistribution near the lipid surface.

Vibrational spectroscopy and dynamics of water confined inside reverse micelles.

In this work, we combine atomistic molecular dynamics simulations with theoretical vibrational spectroscopy to study the properties of water confined inside bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate (AOT) reverse micelles. This approach is found to successfully reproduce the experimental spectra, rotational anisotropy decays, and spectral diffusion time-correlation functions as a function of micelle size. These results are interpreted in terms of water molecules in different hydrogen bonding environments. One interesting result from our simulation, not directly accessible experimentally, involves the distance from the surfactant headgroup/water interface over which the dynamical properties of water become bulk-like. We find that this distance varies with micelle size, casting doubt on the core/shell model. In particular, the distance increases with decreasing micelle size, and hence decreasing radius of curvature of the interface. We suggest that this arises from curvature-induced frustration. We also find that the dynamics in the smallest micelle studied is extremely slow--relaxation is still incomplete by 1 ns. As in other glassy systems with collective relaxation, our time-correlation functions can be fit to stretched exponentials, in this case with very small exponents.

Electronic structure of the benzene dimer cation.

The benzene and benzene dimer cations are studied using the equation-of-motion coupled-cluster model with single and double substitutions for ionized systems. The ten lowest electronic states of the dimer at t-shaped, sandwich, and displaced sandwich configurations are described and cataloged based on the character of the constituent fragment molecular orbitals. The character of the states, bonding patterns, and important features of the electronic spectrum are explained using qualitative dimer molecular orbital linear combination of fragment molecular orbital framework. Relaxed ground state geometries are obtained for all isomers. Calculations reveal that the lowest energy structure of the cation has a displaced sandwich structure and a binding energy of 20 kcal/mol, while the t-shaped isomer is 6 kcal/mol higher. The calculated electronic spectra agree well with experimental gas phase action spectra and femtosecond transient absorption in liquid benzene. Both sandwich and t-shaped structures feature intense charge resonance bands, whose location is very sensitive to the interfragment distance. Change in the electronic state ordering was observed between sigma and piu states, which correlate to the B and C bands of the monomer, suggesting a reassignment of the local excitation peaks in the gas phase experimental spectrum.

Benchmark full configuration interaction and equation-of-motion coupled-cluster model with single and double substitutions for ionized systems results for prototypical charge transfer systems: noncovalent ionized dimers.

Benchmark full configuration interaction and equation-of-motion coupled-cluster model with single and double substitutions for ionized systems (EOM-IP-CCSD) results are presented for prototypical charge transfer species. EOM-IP-CCSD describes these doublet systems based on the closed-shell reference and thus avoids the doublet instability problem. The studied quantities are associated with the quality of the potential energy surface (PES) along the charge transfer coordinate and distribution of the charge between fragments. It is found that EOM-IP-CCSD is capable of describing accurately both the charge-localized and charge-delocalized systems, yielding accurate charge distributions and energies. This is in stark contrast with the methods based on the open-shell reference, which overlocalize the charge and produce a PES cusp when the fragments are indistinguishable.

Spectroscopy of the cyano radical in an aqueous environment.

The effect of bulk water on the B (2)Sigma(+) <-- X (2)Sigma(+) and A (2)Pi <-- X (2)Sigma(+) electronic transitions of the cyano radical is investigated. First, the cyano radical-water dimer is characterized to understand the nature of the interactions and parametrize molecular mechanics (MM) potentials. The carbon atom, which hosts the unpaired electron, is found to have a Lennard-Jones radius smaller than typical force fields values. Classical molecular dynamics (MD) is then used to sample water configurations around the radical, employing two sets of MM parameters for the cyano radical and water. Subsequently, vertical excitation energies are calculated using time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) and equation-of-motion coupled-cluster with single and double substitutions (EOM-CCSD). The effect of water is modeled by point charges used in the MD simulations. It is found that both bands blue-shift with respect to their gas phase position; the magnitude of the shift is only weakly dependent on the method and the MM parameter set used. The calculated shifts are analyzed in terms of the solute-solvent interactions in the ground and excited states. Significant contributions come from valence repulsion and electrostatics. Consequences for experiments on ICN photodissociation in water are discussed.

Advances in methods and algorithms in a modern quantum chemistry program package.

Advances in theory and algorithms for electronic structure calculations must be incorporated into program packages to enable them to become routinely used by the broader chemical community. This work reviews advances made over the past five years or so that constitute the major improvements contained in a new release of the Q-Chem quantum chemistry package, together with illustrative timings and applications. Specific developments discussed include fast methods for density functional theory calculations, linear scaling evaluation of energies, NMR chemical shifts and electric properties, fast auxiliary basis function methods for correlated energies and gradients, equation-of-motion coupled cluster methods for ground and excited states, geminal wavefunctions, embedding methods and techniques for exploring potential energy surfaces.