Rigid or floppy water-containing dipole-bound dimer anions

We here report a comparative experimental and theoretical study of dipole-bound electron attachment on four polar hydrogen-bonded dimers containing one water molecule (water-water, ammonia-water, phenol-water and pyridine-water). When the water molecule is the proton acceptor in the neutral complex, with a trans-linear hydrogen bond (water-water and phenol-water), it is shown that the equilibrium geometry of the dipole-bound anion tends to a cis-linear hydrogen bond for which the total dipole moment is larger. On the contrary, when the water molecule is the proton donor to a nitrogen atom (ammonia-water and pyridine-water), dipole-bound electron attachment does not lead to subsequent modifications of the complex geometry.