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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 91 » Issue 15
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 157401 (2003) [4 pages]

Molecular Structure of Alcohol-Water Mixtures

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J.-H. Guo1,*, Y. Luo2,†, A. Augustsson1,3, S. Kashtanov2, J.-E. Rubensson3, D. K. Shuh4, H. Ågren2, and J. Nordgren3
1Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
2Theoretical Chemistry, Royal Institute of Technology, SCFAB, S-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden
3Department of Physics, Uppsala University, Box 530, S-75121, Uppsala, Sweden
4Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

Received 12 May 2003; published 7 October 2003

We use x-ray emission spectroscopy to elucidate the molecular structure of liquid methanol, water, and methanol-water solutions. We find that molecules in the pure liquid methanol predominantly persist as hydrogen-bonded chains and rings with six and/or eight molecules of equal abundance. For water-methanol solutions we find evidence of incomplete mixing at the microscopic level. Our results provide a new explanation for a smaller entropy increase in the solution due to water molecules bridging methanol chains to form rings.

© 2003 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.157401
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.157401
PACS:
78.70.En, 79.90.+b, 82.30.Rs, 82.90.+j

*To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Email address: jguo@lbl.gov

†Email address: luo@theochem.kth.se

 
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