Determining the radial distribution function of water using electron scattering: A key to solution phase chemistry

Abstract

High energy electron scattering of liquid water (H 2 O) at near-ambient temperature and pressure was performed in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) to determine the radial distribution of water, which provides information on intra-and intermolecular spatial correlations. A recently developed environmental liquid cell enables formation of a stable water layer, the thickness of which is readily controlled by pressure and flow rate adjustments of a humid air stream passing between two silicon nitride (Si 3 N 4 ) membranes. The analysis of the scattering data is adapted from the x-ray methodology to account for multiple scattering in the H 2 O:Si 3 N 4 sandwich layer. For the H 2 O layer, we obtain oxygen-oxygen (O-O) and oxygen-hydrogen (O-H) peaks at 2.84 Å and 1.83 Å, respectively, in good agreement with values in the literature. This demonstrates the potential of our approach toward future studies of water-based physics and chemistry in TEMs or electron probes of structural dynamics.

Coupled Electronic and Nuclear Motions during Azobenzene Photoisomerization Monitored by Ultrafast Electron Diffraction

“…Finally, we demonstrated that UED is sensitive to both electronic and nuclear dynamics, not only to structural changes. This point was also made recently by de Kock et al…”

A Molecular Dynamic Study of the Effects of Surface Partitioning on the OH Radical Interactions with Solutes in Multicomponent Aqueous Aerosols

“…The RDF between oxygen–oxygen pairs of two water molecules (Figure S2) is similar to literature profiles and shows a sharp peak at 2.75 Å (Table ) for all three simulation setups. This value is close to the expected average hydrogen bond length in water, 2.8 Å . In addition, all RDFs between two identical species (not showed) are found to be independent of the particle composition as expected for such dilute systems.…”

“…This value is close to the expected average hydrogen bond length in water, 2.8 Å. 161 In addition, all RDFs between two identical species (not showed) are found to be independent of the particle composition as expected for such dilute systems.…”

Accessing local electron-beam induced temperature changes during in situ liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy

“…It is crucial to keep in mind that the measured temperature presented in this work does not directly relate to the liquid temperature itself but reflects the temperature of the embedded Au nanoparticles. Although solvent temperature would be theoretically accessible by electron scattering, as well, 48 the vast majority of LPTEM experiments aims at analyzing processes of nanostructures enclosed in the liquid rather than studying the liquid itself. Thus, the temperature of the nanocrystals is particularly interesting for practical considerations.…”