Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Non-local X-ray intermolecular radiative decay probes solvation shell of ions in water

Söderström, Johan ; Cornetta, Lucas M. ; Ekholm, Victor LU ; Carravetta, Vincenzo ; Brito, Arnaldo Naves de ; Marinho, Ricardo LU ; Agåker, Marcus LU ; Tokushima, Takashi LU orcid ; Såthe, Conny LU and Ghosh, Anirudha LU , et al. (2025) In Nature Communications 16(1).
Abstract

Aqueous solutions are crucial in chemistry, biology, environmental science, and technology. The chemistry of solutes is influenced by the surrounding solvation shell of water molecules, which have different chemical properties than bulk water due to their different electronic and geometric structure. It is experimentally challenging to selectively investigate this property-determining electronic and geometric structure. Here, we report experimental results on the non-local X-ray emission process Intermolecular Radiative Decay, for the prototypical ions Na+ and Mg2+ in water. We show that, in Intermolecular Radiative Decay, an electron from the solvation shell fills a core hole in the solute, and the released energy... (More)

Aqueous solutions are crucial in chemistry, biology, environmental science, and technology. The chemistry of solutes is influenced by the surrounding solvation shell of water molecules, which have different chemical properties than bulk water due to their different electronic and geometric structure. It is experimentally challenging to selectively investigate this property-determining electronic and geometric structure. Here, we report experimental results on the non-local X-ray emission process Intermolecular Radiative Decay, for the prototypical ions Na+ and Mg2+ in water. We show that, in Intermolecular Radiative Decay, an electron from the solvation shell fills a core hole in the solute, and the released energy is emitted as an X-ray photon. We interpret the underlying mechanism using theoretical calculations, and show how Intermolecular Radiative Decay will allow us to meet the challenge of selectively probing the solvation shell from within.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and , et al. (More)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and (Less)
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Nature Communications
volume
16
issue
1
article number
10046
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • pmid:41249830
  • scopus:105022096111
ISSN
2041-1723
DOI
10.1038/s41467-025-65581-7
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2025.
id
291083dc-462d-497c-95d6-cea7578c0a8d
date added to LUP
2026-01-16 15:56:55
date last changed
2026-01-17 03:00:02
@article{291083dc-462d-497c-95d6-cea7578c0a8d,
  abstract     = {{<p>Aqueous solutions are crucial in chemistry, biology, environmental science, and technology. The chemistry of solutes is influenced by the surrounding solvation shell of water molecules, which have different chemical properties than bulk water due to their different electronic and geometric structure. It is experimentally challenging to selectively investigate this property-determining electronic and geometric structure. Here, we report experimental results on the non-local X-ray emission process Intermolecular Radiative Decay, for the prototypical ions Na<sup>+</sup> and Mg<sup>2+</sup> in water. We show that, in Intermolecular Radiative Decay, an electron from the solvation shell fills a core hole in the solute, and the released energy is emitted as an X-ray photon. We interpret the underlying mechanism using theoretical calculations, and show how Intermolecular Radiative Decay will allow us to meet the challenge of selectively probing the solvation shell from within.</p>}},
  author       = {{Söderström, Johan and Cornetta, Lucas M. and Ekholm, Victor and Carravetta, Vincenzo and Brito, Arnaldo Naves de and Marinho, Ricardo and Agåker, Marcus and Tokushima, Takashi and Såthe, Conny and Ghosh, Anirudha and Bloß, Dana and Hans, Andreas and Trinter, Florian and Ismail, Iyas and Vasconcelos, Debora and Pinheiro, Joel and Chang, Yi Ping and Harder, Manuel and Yin, Zhong and Nordgren, Joseph and Öhrwall, Gunnar and Ågren, Hans and Rubensson, Jan Erik and Björneholm, Olle}},
  issn         = {{2041-1723}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Nature Communications}},
  title        = {{Non-local X-ray intermolecular radiative decay probes solvation shell of ions in water}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-65581-7}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41467-025-65581-7}},
  volume       = {{16}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}