High resolution X-ray emission spectroscopy of liquid water: The observation of two structural motifs

T. Tokushima, Y. Harada, O. Takahashi, Y. Senba, H. Ohashi, Lars G.M. Pettersson, Anders Nilsson, S. Shin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The structure of liquid water is presently under intense debate. We summarize the historical development of the present description of water and the controversy surrounding the X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) study of Wernet et al. [Ph. Wernet et al., Science 304 (2004) 995]. In order to provide further insight into the connection between X-ray spectroscopy and the structure of the hydrogen bonding network, we report new data comprising high resolution oxygen K-edge X-ray emission spectra (XES) of liquid water. We observe two distinct narrow lone-pair derived peaks, assigned, respectively, to tetrahedral and strongly distorted hydrogen-bonded species; the assignment is based on comparison with ice and gas phase spectra, temperature dependent measurements, excitation energy dependence and theoretical simulations. We estimate a 2:1 ratio between distorted and tetrahedral species at room temperature and discuss what this implies in connection to the previous XAS study and in terms of liquid water structure.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)387-400
Number of pages14
JournalChemical Physics Letters
Volume460
Issue number4-6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2008 Jul 30
Externally publishedYes

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