Hydration of ions in two-dimensional water

Abstract

We present a two-dimensional lattice model of water to study the effects of ion hydration on the properties of water. We map the water molecules as lattice particles consisting of a single oxygen atom at the center of a site and two hydrogen atoms on each side. The internal state of the system, such as the dipole moment at a site, is defined with respect to the location of the hydrogen atoms at the site depending on their role in hydrogen bonds (H bonds) being a donor or an acceptor. We study the influence of the charge and the radius of the ion on the insertion energy and on the H bonds in the first and second hydration layers around the ion and in the bulk. In particular we analyze how the competing interactions of the short-ranged H bonds and the long-ranged electrostatics influence the hydration properties. The role of the ion both as a source of the electrostatic interactions as well as a defect is also discussed. Our model also shows the well-known fact that the polarizability of the water molecules destroys the hydrogen bond network and increases the dipole moment of the molecules near the ion.