Chemical Structure of Hydrated Protons in Liquid Water (IMAGE)
Caption
[A] Schematic of the Eigen cation H9O4+ (left) and the Zundel cation H5O2+ (right). The arrows indicate the O-H bond coordinate r and the (O...H+...O) proton transfer coordinate z. In the Eigen cation a covalent O-H bond localizes the proton whereas in the Zundel cation the proton is delocalized between two water molecules. [B] Anharmonic vibrational potential (left) and double minimum potential of the Zundel cation along z (right, red). Distortions by the solvent surrounding impose a modulation of the double minimum potential (right, dotted line). Red and blue arrows indicate transitions between particular quantum states of the proton motion, i.e., the ground-state-to-first-excited-state transition (red) and the first-excited-state-to-second-excited-state transition (blue). The modulation of the potentials leads to spectral shifts of the vibrational transitions which are mapped by two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy.
Credit
MBI Berlin
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