Effects of hydrogen-bond environment on single particle and pair dynamics in liquid water

Abstract

We have performed molecular dynamics simulations of liquid water at 298 and 258 K to investigate the effects of hydrogen-bond environment on various single-particle and pair dynamical properties of water molecules at ambient and supercooled conditions. The water molecules are modelled by the extended simple point charge (SPC/E) model. We first calculate the distribution of hydrogen-bond environment in liquid water at both temperatures and then investigate how the self-diffusion and orientational relaxation of a single water molecule and also the relative diffusion and relaxation of the hydrogen-bond of a water pair depend on the nature of the hydrogen-bond environment of the tagged molecules. We find that the various dynamical quantities depend significantly on the hydrogen-bond environment, especially at the supercooled temperature. The present study provides a molecular-level insight into the dynamics of liquid water under ambient and supercooled conditions.