Journal
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS
Volume 110, Issue 16, Pages -Publisher
AMER PHYSICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.165505
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Research Center Program of IBS (Institute for Basic Science) in Korea [CA1201]
- PRESTO/JST
- Inha University [INHA-46438]
- Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning, Republic of Korea [IBS CA1301] Funding Source: Korea Institute of Science & Technology Information (KISTI), National Science & Technology Information Service (NTIS)
- National Research Foundation of Korea [R31-2012-000-10071-0] Funding Source: Korea Institute of Science & Technology Information (KISTI), National Science & Technology Information Service (NTIS)
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [11J10227] Funding Source: KAKEN
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Ionic species often play important roles in chemical reactions occurring in water and other solvents, but it has been elusive to determine the solvent-dependent molecular structure with atomic resolution. The triiodide ion has a molecular structure that sensitively changes depending on the type of solvent and its symmetry can be broken by strong solute-solvent interaction. Here, by applying pump-probe x-ray solution scattering, we characterize the exact molecular structure of I-3(-) ion in water, methanol, and acetonitrile with subangstrom accuracy. The data reveal that I-3(-) ion has an asymmetric and bent structure in water. In contrast, the ion keeps its symmetry in acetonitrile, while the symmetry breaking occurs to a lesser extent in methanol than in water. The symmetry breaking of I-3(-) ion is reproduced by density functional theory calculations using 34 explicit water molecules, confirming that the origin of the symmetry breaking is the hydrogen-bonding interaction between the solute and solvent molecules. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.165505
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available