Relation between frequency and H bond length in heavy water: Towards the understanding of the unusual properties of H bond dynamics in nanoporous media

The published work on H bond dynamics mainly refers to diluted solutions HDO/D2O rather than to normal water. The reasons for this choice are both theoretical and experimental. Mechanical isolation of the OH vibrator eliminating the resonant energy transfer makes it a better probe of the local H bond network, while the dilution in heavy water reduces the infrared absorption, which permits the use of thicker experimental cells. The isotopic substitution does not alter crucially the nature of the problem. The length r of an OH . . . O group is statistically distributed over a large interval comprised between 2.7 and 3.2 A with a mean value r0 = 2.86 A. Liquid water may thus be viewed as a mixture of hydrogen bonds of different length. Two important characteristics of hydrogen bonding must be mentioned. (i) The OH stretching vibrations are strongly affected by this interaction. The shorter the length r of the hydrogen bond, the strongest the H bond link and the lower is its frequency ω: the covalent OH bond energy is lent to the OH. . .O bond and reinforces the latter. A number of useful relationships between ω and r were published to express this correlation. The one adopted in our previous work is the relationship due to Mikenda. (ii) Not only the OH vibrations, but also the HDO rotations are influenced noticeably by hydrogen bonding. This is due to steric forces that hinder the HDO rotations. As they are stronger in short than in long hydrogen bonds, rotations are slower in the first case than in the second. This effect was only recently discovered, but its existence is hardly to be contested. In the present contribution, we want to revisit the relationship between the frequency of the OH vibrator and the distance OH. . .O.