Water is synonymous with life, but the dynamic, multifaceted interaction that brings H2O molecules together -- the hydrogen bond -- remains mysterious. Hydrogen bonds result when hydrogen and oxygen atoms between water molecules interact, sharing electronic charge in the process. This charge-sharing is a key feature of the three-dimensional 'H-bond' network that gives liquid water its unique properties, but quantum phenomena at the heart of such networks have thus far been understood only through theoretical simulations.
Now, researchers led by Sylvie Roke, head of the Laboratory for Fundamental BioPhotonics in EPFL's School of Engineering, have published a new method -- correlated vibrational spectroscopy (CVS) -- that enables them to measure how water molecules behave when they participate in H-bond networks. Crucially, CVS allows scientists to distinguish between such participating (interacting) molecules, and randomly distributed, non-H-bonded (non-interacting) molecules. By contrast, any other method reports measurements on both molecule types simultaneously, making it impossible to distinguish between them.
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