The dipole moment of the gas phase water monomer is 1.85 D. When solvated in bulk water, the dipole moment of an individual water molecule is observed to be enhanced to the much larger value of 2.9 +/- 0.6 D. To understand the origin of this dipole moment enhancement, the effective fragment potential (EFP) method is used to solvate an ab initio water molecule to predict the dipole moments for v...

Light-driven oxidation of water to dioxygen in plants, algae, and cyanobacteria is catalyzed within photosystem II (PS II) by a Mn 4Ca cluster. Although the cluster has been studied by many different methods, its structure and mechanism have remained elusive. X-ray absorption and emission spectroscopy and extended X-ray absorption fine structure studies have been particularly useful in probing ...

The light-driven oxidation of water in photosystem II (PSII) produces nearly all of the molecular oxygen on Earth and drives the production of nearly all of Earth’s biomass. Determining the mechanism of O2 formation in PSII is one of the hottest topics in photosynthesis and has stimulated much interest in the development of artificial photosynthesis. The catalytic water-oxidizing center (WOC) c...

Artificial water channels (AWCs) are known to selectively transport water, with ion exclusion. Similarly natural porins, AWCs encapsulate wires or clusters, offering continuous and iterative H-bonding that plays a vital role in their stabilization. Herein, we report octyl-ureido-polyol capable of self-assembly into hydrophilic hydroxy channels. Variants ethanol, propanediol, trimethanol used as...

A water-compatible Pd(ii) pincer with a hybrid [SNS]-donor set, [L(1)PdCl]Cl.2H(2)O [L(1) = bis-(2-(i-butylsulfanyl)-ethyl)-amine] has been isolated and crystallographically characterized; its solid lattice at 223 K contains a ladder-like water polymer of tetramers and extensive H-bonding exists among the cation, anion and water cluster, and this water-soluble complex is active in Suzuki-Miyaur...

Formation of the macroscopically-infinite hydrogen-bonded water network in various aqueous systems occurs via 3D percolation transition when the probability of finding a spanning water cluster exceeds 95%. As a result, in a wide interval of water content below the percolation threshold, rarefied quasi-2D water networks span over the mesoscopic length scale. Formation and topology of spanning wa...