X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy Measurements of Liquid Water

• Published in: The journal of physical chemistry. B Vol. 109; no. 28; pp. 13835 - 13839
• Main Authors: Näslund, L.-Å, Lüning, J, Ufuktepe, Y, Ogasawara, H, Wernet, Ph, Bergmann, U, Pettersson, L. G. M, Nilsson, A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 21.07.2005
• Subjects: Absorptiometry, Photon - methods; Absorption; Chemistry, Physical - methods; Electrons; Hydrogen Bonding; Kinetics; Models, Statistical; Photons; Scattering, Radiation; Sensitivity and Specificity; Spectrum Analysis; Spectrum Analysis, Raman; Water - chemistry; X-Rays
• ISSN: 1520-6106; 1520-5207
• DOI: 10.1021/jp052046q

Recent studies, based on X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray Raman scattering (XRS), have shown that the hydrogen bond network in liquid water consists mainly of water molecules with only two strong hydrogen bonds. Since this result is controversial, it is important to demonstrate the reliability of the experimental data, which is the purpose of this paper. Here we compare X-ray absorption spectra of liquid water recorded with five very different techniques sensitive to the local environment of the absorbing molecule. Overall, the spectra obtained with photon detection show a very close similarity and even the observable minor differences can be understood. The comparison demonstrates that XAS and XRS can indeed be applied reliably to study the local bonding of the water molecule and thus to reveal the hydrogen bond situation in bulk water.