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Determining the radial distribution function of water using electron scattering: A key to solution phase chemistry Featured

authors
Michiel de Kock, Sana Azim, Gunther Kassier, and R. J. Dwayne Miller
date published
Nov. 20, 2020
journal
The Journal of Chemical Physics
volume, number
153
pages
194504
web page
https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0024127
doi
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0024127
note
Selected as Featured Article in The Journal of Chemical Physics
abstract

High energy electron scattering of liquid water (H2O) at near-ambient temperature and pressure was performed in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) to determine the radial distribution of water, which provides information on intra- and intermolecular spatial correlations. A recently developed environmental liquid cell enables formation of a stable water layer, the thickness of which is readily controlled by pressure and flow rate adjustments of a humid air stream passing between two silicon nitride (Si3N4) membranes. The analysis of the scattering data is adapted from the x-ray methodology to account for multiple scattering in the H2O:Si3N4 sandwich layer. For the H2O layer, we obtain oxygen–oxygen (O–O) and oxygen–hydrogen (O–H) peaks at 2.84 Å and 1.83 Å, respectively, in good agreement with values in the literature. This demonstrates the potential of our approach toward future studies of water-based physics and chemistry in TEMs or electron probes of structural dynamics