Liquid structures of water, methanol, and hydrogen fluoride at ambient conditions from first principles molecular dynamics simulations with a dispersion corrected density functional.

Using first principles molecular dynamics simulations in the isobaric-isothermal ensemble (T = 300 K, p = 1 atm) with the Becke-Lee-Yang-Parr exchange/correlation functional and a dispersion correction due to Grimme, the hydrogen bonding networks of pure liquid water, methanol, and hydrogen fluoride are probed. Although an accurate density is found for water with this level of electronic structure theory, the average liquid densities for both hydrogen fluoride and methanol are overpredicted by 50 and 25%, respectively. The radial distribution functions indicate somewhat overstructured liquid phases for all three compounds. The number of hydrogen bonds per molecule in water is about twice as high as for methanol and hydrogen fluoride, though the ratio of cohesive energy over number of hydrogen bonds is lower for water. An analysis of the hydrogen-bonded aggregates revealed the presence of mostly linear chains in both hydrogen fluoride and methanol, with a few stable rings and chains spanning the simulation box in the case of hydrogen fluoride. Only an extremely small fraction of smaller clusters was found for water, indicating that its hydrogen bond network is significantly more extensive. A special form of water with on average about two hydrogen bonds per molecule yields a hydrogen-bonding environment significantly different from the other two compounds.