The water molecule and its interactions: the interaction between theory, modelling, and experiment

Understanding the behaviour of water at the molecular level requires a quantitative understanding of the water molecule and its interactions. Although many current empirical potential functions are able to reproduce some of the known behaviour, our understanding of the water molecule and its interactions is not yet sufficient for our modelling to reproduce much of the subtleness of the water molecule's behaviour in both the pure liquid and in solution. Some recent experimental and theoretical developments are discussed that may lead to an improvement in our understanding of the water molecule and its interactions in a range of environments and over a range of experimental conditions. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.