title: Effects of alkali metal halide salts on the hydrogen bond network of liquid water.
abstract: Measurements of the oxygen K-edge X-ray absorption spectrum (XAS) of aqueous sodium halide solutions demonstrate that ions significantly perturb the electronic structure of adjacent water molecules. The addition of halide salts to water engenders an increase in the preedge intensity and a decrease in the postedge intensity of the XAS, analogous to those observed when increasing the temperature of pure water. The main-edge feature exhibits unique behavior and becomes more intense when salt is added. Density functional theory calculations of the XAS indicate that the observed red shift of the water transitions as a function of salt concentration arises from a strong, direct perturbation of the unoccupied molecular orbitals on water by anions, and does not require significant distortion of the hydrogen bond network beyond the first solvation shell. This contrasts the temperature-dependent spectral variations, which result primarily from intensity changes of specific transitions due to geometric rearrangement of the hydrogen bond network.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of California and Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720-1460, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Cappa
authors.forename: Jared D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Kevin R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Benjamin M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Messer
authors.forename: Mary K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Gilles
authors.forename: Ronald C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Saykally
mesh_terms: D000838:Anions / Q000737:chemistry; D002412:Cations / Q000737:chemistry; D002627:Chemistry, Physical / Q000379:methods*; D006860:Hydrogen Bonding; D007477:Ions; D008670:Metals / Q000737:chemistry*; D016011:Normal Distribution; D012492:Salts / Q000737:chemistry*; D012964:Sodium / Q000737:chemistry; D012984:Software; D013052:Spectrometry, X-Ray Emission / Q000379:methods; D013696:Temperature; D013816:Thermodynamics; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*; D014965:X-Rays
chemical_list: D000838:Anions; D002412:Cations; D007477:Ions; D008670:Metals; D012492:Salts; D014867:Water; D012964:Sodium