Properties of Liquid Water and Solvated Ions Based on First Principles Calculations

Abstract

Water is of essential importance for life on earth, yet the physics concerning its various anomalous properties has not been fully illuminated. This thesis is dedicated to the understanding of liquid water from aspects of microscopic structures, dynamics, electronic structures, X-ray absorption spectra, and proton transfer mechanism. This thesis use the computational simulation techniques including density functional theory (DFT), ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD), and theoretical models for X-ray absorption spectra (XAS) to investigate the dynamics and electronic structures of liquid water system. The topics investigated in this thesis include a comprehensive evaluation on the simulation of liquid water using the newly developed SCAN meta-GGA functional, a systematic modeling of the liquid-water XAS using advanced ab initio approaches, and an explanation for a long-puzzling question that why hydronium diffuses faster than hydroxide in liquid water. Overall, significant contributions have been made to the understanding of liquid water and ionic solutions in the microscopic level through the aid of ab initio computational modeling.