Dynamics of halide ion-water hydrogen bonds in aqueous solutions: dependence on ion size and temperature

Abstract

We have carried out a series of molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the dynamics of X^--water (X = F, Cl, Br, and I) and water-water hydrogen bonds in aqueous alkali halide solutions at room temperature and also of Cl^--water and water-water hydrogen bonds at seven different temperatures ranging from 238 to 318 K. The hydrogen bonds are defined by using a set of configurational criteria with respect to the anion(oxygen)-oxygen and anion(oxygen)-hydrogen distances and the anion(oxygen)-oxygen-hydrogen angle for an anion(water)-water pair. The results of the hydrogen bond dynamics are obtained for two different cutoff values for the angular criterion. In both cases, similar dynamical behavior of the hydrogen bonds is found with respect to their dependence on ion size and temperature. The fluoride ion-water hydrogen bonds are found to break at a much slower rate than water-water hydrogen bonds, while the lifetimes of chloride and bromide ion-water hydrogen bonds are found to be shorter than those of fluoride ion-water ones but still longer than water-water hydrogen bonds. The short-time dynamics of iodide ion-water hydrogen bonds is found to be slightly faster, while its long-time dynamics is found to be slightly slower than the corresponding water-water hydrogen bond dynamics. Correlations of the observed dynamics of anion(water)-water hydrogen bonds with those of rotational and translational diffusion and residence times of water molecules in ion(water) hydration shells are also discussed. With variation of temperature, the lifetimes of both Cl^--water and water-water hydrogen bonds are found to show Arrhenius behavior with a slightly higher activation energy for the Cl^--water hydrogen bonds.