Mediation of hydrogen-bond coupling interactions by programmable heating and salting

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that programmable heating and salting similarly influence hydrogen-bond interactions by altering phonon frequencies, revealing mechanisms behind the Hofmeister series and detergent effects.

Contribution

It uncovers the shared effects of heating and salting on hydrogen bonds, providing a molecular-level understanding of their influence on water and cleaning processes.

Findings

Heating and salting cause similar phonon frequency shifts.

Both processes lengthen the O:H bond and shorten the H-O bond.

Results elucidate mechanisms behind the Hofmeister series.

Abstract

We show that programmable heating and salting share the same effect on the frequency shift of the O:H and the H-O stretching phonons of the O:H-O hydrogen bond, which revealed that both heating and salting lengthens and softens the O:H bond and shortens and stiffens the H-O bond due to the weakening of the Coulomb repulsion between electron pairs of adjacent oxygen atoms. Understanding provides possible mechanism for the Hofmeister series and the detergent effect on cloth cleaning.