Ions, solutes and solvents, oh my!

Abstract

<p>Water is a key solvent in chemical and biological applications. The properties of an individual water molecule (a monomer) and the behavior of thousands of molecules (bulk solution) are well known for many solvents. Much is also understood about aqueous microsolvation (small clusters containing ten water molecules or fewer) and the solvation characteristics when bulk water is chosen to solvate a solute. However, much less is known about how these properties behave as the cluster size transitions from the microsolvated cluster size to the bulk. This thesis will focus on species solvated with water clusters that are large enough to exhibit the properties of the bulk but small enough to consist of fewer than one hundred solvent molecules. New methods to study such systems will also be presented.</p>