Unraveling Hydrogen Bonded Clustering with Water: Density Functional Theory Perspective

Abstract

Extensive density functional theory (DFT) studies have been compiled and additional investigation has been performed for several energetically favorable conformers of hydrogen bonded water clusters. The focus here is not to merely reviewing the literature on DFT investigations on water clusters but to understand the basic building blocks, structural patterns and trends in the energetics of the clusters during the cluster growth. The successive addition of water molecules to these clusters alters the hydrogen bonding pattern, that leads to modification in overall cluster geometry which is also reflected in the vibrational frequency shifts in simulated vibrational infra-red (IR) spectra.