Fingerprints in IR OH vibrational spectra of H2O clusters from different H-bond conformations by means of quantum-chemical computations

Abstract

The thermodynamic stabilities and IR spectra of the three water clusters (H2O)20, (H2O)54,, and (H2O)100 are studied by quantum-chemical computations. After full optimization of the (H2O)20,54,100 structures using the hybrid density functional B3LYP together with the 6-31+G(d,p) basis set, the electronic energies, zero-point energies, internal energies, enthalpies, entropies, and Gibbs free energies of the water clusters at 298 K are investigated. The OH stretching vibrational IR spectra of (H2O)20,54,100 are simulated and split into sub-spectra for different H-bond groups depending on the conformations of the hydrogen bonds. From the computed spectra the different spectroscopic fingerprint features of water molecules in different H-bond conformations in the water clusters are inferred.