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Our work on the local coordination in liquid water was selected as one of the ten most important scientific breakthroughs in 2004. Using a combination of experimental synchrotron x-ray spectroscopies and theoretical calculations we showed that water in the liquid has two strong and two weaker hydrogen bonds. This is very different from the present picture of close to four bonds to each molecule. Read more.
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The work on water has caused significant debate and interest. Read a news article (March, 2006) from Symmetry Magazine (from SLAC and Fermilab, USA.
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Proton transfer in hydrogen-bonded water is the fastest chemical reaction. Using the core-hole lifetime as a 'stop watch'
the effects of proton transfer can be monitored using x-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) on a femtosecond time scale.
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We address the adsorption of water on Pt(111) using core-level spectroscopies and density functional theory. Using the direct relationship between the electronic structure and adsorbate geometry, we show that in the first layer all the molecules bind directly to the surface and to each other through the in in-layer H bonds without dissociation, creating a nearly flat overlayer.
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Combining soft x-ray absorption spectroscopy applied to liquids under ambient conditions with density functional theory calculations it is possible to gain insight into the local electronic structure of a hydrogen-bonded liquid and we were able to identify the "fingerprint" of the molecules in direct contact with the solvated ion.
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"Unsaturated" bonds on metal surfaces are available for chemical reactions. The electronic structure of the CO-nickel complex results from the mixing of the CO electron orbitals with those of the nickel substrate that can be characterized through the element-specificity of the core-level spectroscopy.
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