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Alternative Tetrahedral Water Clusters

Connectivity maps of some small optimized tetrahedral water clusters [429]. Compare with the icosahedral (5¹²) water cluster connectivity map (Schlegel diagram) (30,026 symmetry independent hydrogen-bonded configurations). Larger clusters based on, for example, tetrakaidecahedral (5¹²6²) (3,043,836 symmetry independent hydrogen-bonded configurations), pentakaidecahedral (5¹²6³) and hexakaidecahedral (5¹²6⁴) (61,753,344 symmetry independent hydrogen-bonded configurations) cavities are also possible.

 

Full water clustering for the smaller optimized structures is shown below; each molecule in the small cluster forms a vertex of an (H₂O)₁₄ water tetrahedron. Only the oxygen atoms are shown (Jmol interactive structures). Compare with the icosahedral water cluster.

 

Alternative water clusters

 

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This page was established in 2003 and last updated by Martin Chaplin on 14 March, 2019

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