Studies of the stability of negatively charged water clusters

The polarization model of water interactions developed by Stillinger and co-workers has been used for calculations on various types of small water clusters which have been proposed for both the neutral (H₂O)_n species and for the (H₂O)_n^- (n = 4-8) negative ions These results are combined with the recent quantum mechanical results of Rao and Kestner to estimate the energetics of small negative clusters. The formation of a (H₂O)_n^- cluster by electron attachment to an equilibrium cluster is accompanied by large configurational changes, resulting in considerable cluster reorganization energies. The electron affinities of equilibrium (H₂O)_n clusters are negative, while electron attachment can occur to metastable neutral clusters with n ≥ 6.