title: Measurement of two solvation regimes in water-ethanol mixtures using x-ray compton scattering.
abstract: Water-ethanol mixtures exhibit interesting anomalies in their macroscopic properties. Despite a lot of research, the origin of the anomalies and the microscopic structure itself is still far from completely known. We have utilized the synchrotron x-ray Compton scattering technique to elucidate the structure of aqueous ethanol from a new experimental perspective. The technique is uniquely sensitive to the local molecular geometries at the angstrom and subangstrom scales. The experiments reveal two distinct mixing regimes in terms of geometry: the dilute 5 mol % and the concentrated >15 mol % regimes. By comparing with pure liquids, the former regime is characterized by an intramolecular and the latter by an intermolecular change. The findings bring new light to evaluating the hypothesis of formation of clathratelike structures at the dilute concentrations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, PO Box 64, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Juurinen
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakahara
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ando
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nishiumi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Seta
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Morinaga
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Itou
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ninomiya
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sakurai
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Salonen
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nordlund
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hämäläinen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hakala
mesh_terms: D000431:Ethanol / Q000737:chemistry*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D015394:Molecular Structure; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D012996:Solutions / Q000737:chemistry*; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D012996:Solutions; D014867:Water; D000431:Ethanol