Ordered Structures in Liquid Water as Studied by Raman Spectroscopy and the Phonon Confinement Model

Abstract

Raman spectroscopy and the phonon confinement model (PCM) have been used to study the two ordered structures in liquid water, "structured hydrogen bonded water" and "nanoice", whose existence has recently been confirmed by a hyperspectral analysis of 140 temperature dependent Raman spectra (-23 to 45 degrees C). The PCM spectral simulation based on the ice I-h structure indicates that vibrations are limited within a short range of few molecules in "structured hydrogen bonded water", while they extend to about a 2-4 nm range in "Nano-ice".