Imaging the short-lived hydroxyl-hydronium pair in ionized liquid water.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34591617.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/science.abg3091.
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Abstract
The radiolysis of water is ubiquitous in nature and plays a critical role in numerous biochemical and technological applications. Although the elementary reaction pathways for ionized water have been studied, the short-lived intermediate complex and structural dynamic response after the proton transfer reaction remain poorly understood. Using a liquid-phase ultrafast electron diffraction technique to measure the intermolecular oxygen···oxygen and oxygen···hydrogen bonds, we captured the short-lived radical-cation complex OH(H<sub>3</sub>O<sup>+</sup>) that was formed within 140 femtoseconds through a direct oxygen···oxygen bond contraction and proton transfer, followed by the radical-cation pair dissociation and the subsequent structural relaxation of water within 250 femtoseconds. These measurements provide direct evidence of capturing this metastable radical-cation complex before separation, thereby improving our fundamental understanding of elementary reaction dynamics in ionized liquid water.