title: Molecular structure of alcohol-water mixtures.
abstract: We use x-ray emission spectroscopy to elucidate the molecular structure of liquid methanol, water, and methanol-water solutions. We find that molecules in the pure liquid methanol predominantly persist as hydrogen-bonded chains and rings with six and/or eight molecules of equal abundance. For water-methanol solutions we find evidence of incomplete mixing at the microscopic level. Our results provide a new explanation for a smaller entropy increase in the solution due to water molecules bridging methanol chains to form rings.
authors: Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. jguo@lbl.gov
authors: J-H
authors: JH
authors: Guo
authors: Y
authors: Y
authors: Luo
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Augustsson
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Kashtanov
authors: J-E
authors: JE
authors: Rubensson
authors: D K
authors: DK
authors: Shuh
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Agren
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Nordgren