Watching solvent molecules move in real time
X-ray techniques and molecular dynamics simulations were combined to obtain a molecular movie of a light-driven charge-transfer process
The rapid rearrangement of water molecules around a bimetallic complex following a charge-transfer process has been monitored in real time and with atomic resolution by combining x-ray techniques with molecular dynamics simulations. The new results shed light on how charge flow within a molecule is coupled to the molecule’s environment, explains Elisa Biasin from the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in the US. ‘This systematic and quantitative understanding of the molecular interactions will help us unravel complex mechanisms in natural and artificial energy-conversion processes,’ she says.