Mediation of hydrogen-bond coupling interactions by programmable heating and salting

Abstract

We show that programmable heating and salting share the same effect on the frequency shift of the O:H and the H-O stretching phonons of the O:H-O hydrogen bond, which revealed that both heating and salting lengthens and softens the O:H bond and shortens and stiffens the H-O bond due to the weakening of the Coulomb repulsion between electron pairs of adjacent oxygen atoms. Understanding provides possible mechanism for the Hofmeister series and the detergent effect on cloth cleaning.