O. A. Novruzova, O. P. Rakhmanova, and A. E. Galashev
Abstract—The stability and structure of water clusters absorbing nitrogen molecules or argon atoms was analyzed by molecular dynamics simulation at 233 K. The (dμ/di)V,T derivative of the chemical potential, a value characterizing the stability of a cluster with respect to its size, depends linearly on the number of molecules i. According to this criterion, the clusters under study become stable near i = 40. The average length of H-bonds increases monotonically in the growing cluster of pure water and exhibits oscillatory behavior if the growing cluster contains N2 molecules or Ar atoms. The number of H-bonds per molecule oscillates between one and six as the cluster size changes. These oscillations are damped in pure water and sustained for clusters containing impurities, especially argon.
