Isotope effects in liquid water by infrared spectroscopy

The light and heavy liquid water (H2O–D2O) mixtures in the 0–1 molar fraction were studied in the mid-infrared by Fourier transform infrared attenuated total reflectance (FTIR-ATR) spectroscopy. Five principal factors were retrieved by factor analysis (FA). When D2O is mixed with H2O, the HDO formed because of the hopping nature of the proton (H or D) results in three types of molecules in equilibrium. Because of the nearest-neighbor interactions, the three molecules give rise to nine species. Some of the species evolve concomitantly with other species giving the five principal factors observed. We present the spectra of these factors with their abundances. The calculated probability of the species present at different molar fractions which when the concomitant species are combined gives the observed abundances. To appreciate clearly the difference between the principal spectra, a Gaussian simulation of the bands was made. Because of the numerous components that make up the stretch bands, they are not very sensitive to changes in composition of the solutions; nevertheless, they do indicate the presence of new entities other than the pure species. The deformation bands, more sensitive to such changes than the stretch bands, clearly indicate the presence of the three types of molecules as well as of intermediate species. These bands are sensitive to the two hydrogen bonds on the oxygen atom that a reference molecule makes with its nearest-neighbors, but not to the hydrogen bonds that the nearest-neighbors make with the next nearest neighbors.