Quantifying hydrogen bonding using electrically tunable nanoconfined water

Abstract Hydrogen bonding plays a crucial role in biology and technology, yet it remains poorly understood and quantified despite its fundamental importance. Traditional models, which describe hydrogen bonds as electrostatic interactions between electropositive hydrogen and electronegative acceptors...

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Main Authors: Ziwei Wang, Anupam Bhattacharya, Mehmet Yagmurcukardes, Vasyl Kravets, Pablo Díaz-Núñez, Ciaran Mullan, Ivan Timokhin, Takashi Taniguchi, Kenji Watanabe, Alexander N. Grigorenko, Francois Peeters, Kostya S. Novoselov, Qian Yang, Artem Mishchenko
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-04-01
Series:Nature Communications
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58608-6
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author Ziwei Wang
Anupam Bhattacharya
Mehmet Yagmurcukardes
Vasyl Kravets
Pablo Díaz-Núñez
Ciaran Mullan
Ivan Timokhin
Takashi Taniguchi
Kenji Watanabe
Alexander N. Grigorenko
Francois Peeters
Kostya S. Novoselov
Qian Yang
Artem Mishchenko
author_facet Ziwei Wang
Anupam Bhattacharya
Mehmet Yagmurcukardes
Vasyl Kravets
Pablo Díaz-Núñez
Ciaran Mullan
Ivan Timokhin
Takashi Taniguchi
Kenji Watanabe
Alexander N. Grigorenko
Francois Peeters
Kostya S. Novoselov
Qian Yang
Artem Mishchenko
author_sort Ziwei Wang
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Hydrogen bonding plays a crucial role in biology and technology, yet it remains poorly understood and quantified despite its fundamental importance. Traditional models, which describe hydrogen bonds as electrostatic interactions between electropositive hydrogen and electronegative acceptors, fail to quantitatively capture bond strength, directionality, or cooperativity, and cannot predict the properties of complex hydrogen-bonded materials. Here, we introduce a concept of hydrogen bonds as elastic dipoles in an electric field, which captures a wide range of hydrogen bonding phenomena in various water systems. Using gypsum, a hydrogen bond heterostructure with two-dimensional structural crystalline water, we calibrate the hydrogen bond strength through an externally applied electric field. We show that our approach quantifies the strength of hydrogen bonds directly from spectroscopic measurements and reproduces a wide range of key properties of confined water reported in the literature. Using only the stretching vibration frequency of confined water, we can predict hydrogen bond strength, local electric field, O-H bond length, and dipole moment. Our work also introduces hydrogen bond heterostructures – a class of electrically and chemically tunable materials that offer stronger, more directional bonding compared to van der Waals heterostructures, with potential applications in areas such as catalysis, separation, and energy storage.
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spelling doaj-art-f0fcdcdf7cfe41d7aa66617fb155e45b2025-08-20T02:17:56ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232025-04-0116111510.1038/s41467-025-58608-6Quantifying hydrogen bonding using electrically tunable nanoconfined waterZiwei Wang0Anupam Bhattacharya1Mehmet Yagmurcukardes2Vasyl Kravets3Pablo Díaz-Núñez4Ciaran Mullan5Ivan Timokhin6Takashi Taniguchi7Kenji Watanabe8Alexander N. Grigorenko9Francois Peeters10Kostya S. Novoselov11Qian Yang12Artem Mishchenko13Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of ManchesterDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, University of ManchesterDepartment of Photonics, Izmir Institute of TechnologyDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, University of ManchesterDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, University of ManchesterDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, University of ManchesterDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, University of ManchesterNational Institute for Materials ScienceNational Institute for Materials ScienceDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, University of ManchesterDepartment Physics, University of AntwerpDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, University of ManchesterDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, University of ManchesterDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, University of ManchesterAbstract Hydrogen bonding plays a crucial role in biology and technology, yet it remains poorly understood and quantified despite its fundamental importance. Traditional models, which describe hydrogen bonds as electrostatic interactions between electropositive hydrogen and electronegative acceptors, fail to quantitatively capture bond strength, directionality, or cooperativity, and cannot predict the properties of complex hydrogen-bonded materials. Here, we introduce a concept of hydrogen bonds as elastic dipoles in an electric field, which captures a wide range of hydrogen bonding phenomena in various water systems. Using gypsum, a hydrogen bond heterostructure with two-dimensional structural crystalline water, we calibrate the hydrogen bond strength through an externally applied electric field. We show that our approach quantifies the strength of hydrogen bonds directly from spectroscopic measurements and reproduces a wide range of key properties of confined water reported in the literature. Using only the stretching vibration frequency of confined water, we can predict hydrogen bond strength, local electric field, O-H bond length, and dipole moment. Our work also introduces hydrogen bond heterostructures – a class of electrically and chemically tunable materials that offer stronger, more directional bonding compared to van der Waals heterostructures, with potential applications in areas such as catalysis, separation, and energy storage.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58608-6
spellingShingle Ziwei Wang
Anupam Bhattacharya
Mehmet Yagmurcukardes
Vasyl Kravets
Pablo Díaz-Núñez
Ciaran Mullan
Ivan Timokhin
Takashi Taniguchi
Kenji Watanabe
Alexander N. Grigorenko
Francois Peeters
Kostya S. Novoselov
Qian Yang
Artem Mishchenko
Quantifying hydrogen bonding using electrically tunable nanoconfined water
Nature Communications
title Quantifying hydrogen bonding using electrically tunable nanoconfined water
title_full Quantifying hydrogen bonding using electrically tunable nanoconfined water
title_fullStr Quantifying hydrogen bonding using electrically tunable nanoconfined water
title_full_unstemmed Quantifying hydrogen bonding using electrically tunable nanoconfined water
title_short Quantifying hydrogen bonding using electrically tunable nanoconfined water
title_sort quantifying hydrogen bonding using electrically tunable nanoconfined water
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58608-6
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