SOLVATED WATER-MOLECULES AND HYDROGEN-BRIDGED NETWORKS IN LIQUID WATER

We have analyzed the molecular-dynamics (MD) trajectories for the oxygen and hydrogen atoms of liquid water, at six temperatures (from hot, T = 361 K, to supercooled water, T = 242 K); in the MD simulations the Nieser-Corongiu-Clementi ab initio potential has been used, since it yields reliable x-ray and neutron-diffraction data as well as infrared, Raman, and neutron-scattering spectra. Our analysis leads to two complementary models where we can consider each water as a solvated molecule (placed at the center of a solvation shell) or as a component of a cyclic polymer, a substructure of the hydrogen-bonded network. In the first solvation shell all water molecules are solvated with coordination values in the range 2-8. The most probable solvation number is four, at low temperature, and five at high temperature considering oxygen-oxygen pairs; however, the coordination number is four at all the temperatures if we consider oxygen-hydrogen pairs. The lifetime of the tetra coordinated complexes is the largest one and increases as temperature decreases. The computed population of cyclic polymers is highest for the pentameters in the studied temperature range, the second most probable cyclic structure is for hexamers. The average O-O distances in the liquid are temperature dependent and shorter than those in the gas phase, approaching ice values at low temperature (except for cyclic trimers, for which the O-O distance is nearly temperature independent). As a preliminary result, the lifetime of the polygons is estimated to be around 0.01 ps.