Water, molecular reorientation rate

Davidson and Ripmeester (1984) discuss the mobility of water molecules in the host lattices, on the basis of NMR and dielectric experiments. Water mobility comes from molecular reorientation and diffusion, with the former being substantially faster than the water mobility in ice. Dielectric relaxation data suggest that Bjerrum defects in the hydrate lattice, caused by guest dipoles, may enhance water diffusion rates. 

Water mobility from molecular reorientation and diffusion. Evidence for the motion of the water molecules in crystal structures is typically provided by XH NMR (Davidson and Ripmeester, 1984). At very low temperatures (<50 K) molecular motion is frozen in so that hydrate lattices become rigid and the hydrate proton NMR analysis suggests that the first-order contribution to motion is due to reorientation of water molecules in the structure the second-order contribution is due to translational diffusion. 2H NMR has been also used to measure the reori-entational rates of water and guest molecules in THF hydrate (Bach-Verges et al., 2001). Spin lattice relaxation rates (fy) have been measured during THF hydrate... 

Dielectric relaxation is usually employed to characterise the rate of whole molecule reorientation in simple molecular fluids, segmental relaxation in polymer molecules - here the size of the molecule makes the whole molecule reorientation a slower process than internal reorientation and structural relaxation (rotation and translation) in associated liquids such as water or alcohols. 

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