Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Originally published in Science Express on 29 April 2004
Science 21 May 2004:
Vol. 304. no. 5674, pp. 1119 - 1120
DOI: 10.1126/science.1098129
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Perspectives

Also see the archival list of Science's Compass: Enhanced Perspectives

CHEMISTRY:
Enhanced: The Structure of Protonated Water Clusters

Timothy S. Zwier

Acid-base reactions are among the most important chemical processes in aqueous solution, but it is very difficult to characterize the solvated ions that are involved, especially the solvated proton. In his Perspective, Zwier discusses reports by Shin et al. and Miyazaki et al. in the same issue that reveal details of the structure of protonated water by means of infrared spectroscopy. The infrared spectra of a series of protonated water clusters H+(H2O)n with n = 6 to 27 shed new light and raise new questions about the nature of the proton in water, its position in the finite-sized cluster (surface or interior), and the structure of the cluster in the size region of the proposed dodecahedral cage (n = 21).

The author is in the Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2084, USA. E-mail: zwier{at}purdue.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Aggregation-Induced Dissociation of HCl(H2O)4 Below 1 K: The Smallest Droplet of Acid.
A. Gutberlet, G. Schwaab, O. Birer, M. Masia, A. Kaczmarek, H. Forbert, M. Havenith, and D. Marx (2009)
Science 324, 1545-1548
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)