Evidence of the existence of dissociated water molecules in water clusters

The dissociation of water molecules in the water cluster was investigated using ab initio methods and density functional theory. A stable minimum energy configuration of a cluster containing H3O+ and OH− ions was located for a water cluster with five water molecules, (H2O)5. There are six hydrogen bonds in the dissociated water cluster to form the minimum energy structure. A similar structure with H3O+ and OH− ions was also found for a (H2O)8 cluster.