INFRARED ABSORPTION SPECTROSCOPY OF WATER OLIGOMERS: DISCOVERY IN THIN FILMS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS IN CHEMISTRY AND BIOLOGY

Our discovery that oligomers of water could be easily observed in the infrared (IR) of thin films on silver halide and polyethylene, opened the way to other studies of these important species. Herein we report the effects of temperature change on the cyclic water trimer (over the range 10 – 70 ^oC), with intensities decreasing at 30 ^oC and above. Another oligomer (as yet unidentified) at 1576 cm^-1 also decreases at intermediate temperatures. The loss of these strong absorptions at 30 ^oC or above may be relevant to the evolution of intermediate temperatures (30 – 40 ^oC) prevalent in the internal milieu of warm-blooded species. The possible role of radiative transfer of IR within biological systems has been unappreciated due to lack of knowledge about the strong absorptions of many water oligomers on either polar or hydrophobic surfaces. The disappearance of oligomers would deposit energy at their specific locations or might represent a transfer of the photon excitation to another location. Such events would represent previously unrecognized forms of energy redistribution within surface layers. These localized sources of heating (infrared radiation) might have an influence on evolution, on enzymatic reaction rates, on the weathering of rocks, and may offer a chance for interference in processes that favor certain oligomers.