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Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is a major microvascular complication of diabetes mellitus (DM) and is closely associated to programmed cell death. However, the complex mechanisms of necroptosis, an alternative cell death pathway, in DKD pathogenesis are yet to be elucidated. This study indicates that necroptosis is involved in DKD induced by high glucose (HG) both in vivo and in vitro. HG intervention led to the activation of RIPK1/RIPK3/MLKL signaling, resulting in renal tissue necroptosis and proinflammatory activation in streptozotocin/high-fat diet- (STZ/HFD-) induced diabetic mice and HG-induced normal rat kidney tubular cells (NRK-52E). We further found that in HG-induced NRK-52E cell, necroptosis might, at least partly, depend on the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Meanwhile, ROS participated in necroptosis via a positive feedback loop involving the RIPK1/RIPK3 pathway. In addition, blocking RIPK1/RIPK3/MLKL signaling by necrostatin-1 (Nec-1), a key inhibitor of RIPK1 in the necroptosis pathway, or antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC), an inhibitor of ROS generation, could effectively protect the kidney against HG-induced damage, decrease the release of proinflammatory cytokines, and rescue renal function in STZ/HFD-induced diabetic mice. Inhibition of RIPK1 effectively decreased the activation of RIPK1-kinase-/NF-κB-dependent inflammation. Collectively, we demonstrated that high glucose induced DKD via renal tubular epithelium necroptosis, and Nec-1 or NAC treatment downregulated the RIPK1/RIPK3/MLKL pathway and finally reduced necroptosis, oxidative stress, and inflammation. Thus, RIPK1 may be a therapeutic target for DKD.

Bond relaxation from one equilibrium to another under perturbation matters uniquely the performance of a substance and thus it has enormous impact to materials science and engineering. However, the basic rules for the perturbation-bond-property correlation and efficient probing strategies for high-resolution detection stay yet great challenge. This treatise features recent progress in this regard with focus on the multifield bond oscillation notion and the theory-enabled phonon spectrometrics. From the perspective of Fourier transformation and the Taylor series of the potentials, we correlate the phonon spectral signatures directly to the transition of the characteristic bonds in terms of stiffness (frequency shift), number fraction (integral of the differential spectral peak), structure fluctuation (linewidth), and the macroscopic properties of the substance. A systematic examination of the spectral feature evolution for group IV, III-V, II-VI crystals, layered graphene nanoribbons, black phosphor, (W, Mo)(S2, Se2) flakes, typical nanocrystals, and liquid water and aqueous solutions under perturbation has enabled the ever-unexpected information on the perturbation-bond-property regulations. Consistency between predictions and measurements of the crystal size-resolved phonon frequency shift clarifies that atomic dimer oscillation dictates the vibration modes showing blueshift while the collective vibration of oscillators formed between a certain atom and its nearest neighbors governs the modes of redshift when the sample size is reduced. Theoretical matching to the phonon frequency shift due to atomic undercoordination, mechanical and thermal activation, and aqueous charge injection by solvation has been realized. The reproduction of experimental measurements has turned out quantitative information of bond length, bond energy, single bond force constant, binding energy density, vibration mode activation energy, Debye temperature, elastic modulus, and the number and stiffness transition of bonds from the mode of references to the conditioned upon perturbation. Findings prove not only the essentiality of the multifield lattice oscillating dynamics but also the immense power of the phonon spectrometrics in revealing the bond-phonon-property correlation of solid and liquid substance.

We systematically examined the effect of (H, Li)Cl and LiOH solvation on the O:H[sbnd]O bond network deformation, surface tension (contact angle), solution electrical conductivity, thermomics, and viscosity evolution aiming to clarifying the functionalities for ions, lone pairs, and protons acting in these solutions. Results confirmed that H + and electron lone pair ‘:’ introduction turns out the (H 3 O + , OH − )·4H 2 O motifs and that the Li + and Cl − form each a hydration volume through the screened electrostatic polarization. The (H 3 O + , OH − )·4H 2 O turns an O:H[sbnd]O bond into the H ↔ H anti–HB that disrupts the HCl solution network and its surface tension and into the O:⇔:O super–HB compressor that raises the LiOH solution surface tension and viscosity, as well as the solution temperature during solvation. The Li + /Cl − ion reserves/reduces its hydration volume because of the complete/incomplete screen shielding by the ordered hydrating H 2 O dipoles and the Cl − ↔ Cl − repulsion at higher concentrations. The invariant/variant Li + /Cl − hydration volume dictates, respectively, the linear/nonlinear concentration dependence of the Jones–Dole viscosity. Except for the HCl/H 2 O surface tension and LiOH/H 2 O viscosity, the conductivity, surface tension, and viscosity of these solutions follow the Jones–Dole notion that underscores the faction of bond transition from the mode of water to hydration. Accepted version

It has been a long pursuit to discriminate the ionic roles of mono- and di-valent salt solutions in modulating the hydrogen bonding network and solution properties. We attended this issue by examining the effect of concentrated YX 2 (Y[dbnd]Mg, Ca, Sr; X[dbnd]Cl, Br) solvation on O:H–O bonds transition from the mode of ordinary water to hydration in terms of the number fraction f YX2 (C) and the segmental O:H–O bond phonon stiffness shift Δω(C) with C being the solute concentration. The invariant df Y (C) / dC at C ≤

Recently, we discovered that the delocalization of nitrogen lone-pair electrons (NLPEs) in five-membered nitrogen heterocycles created a second σ-aromaticity in addition to the prototypical π-aromaticity. Such dual-aromatic compounds, such as the pentazole anion, were proved to have distinct chemistry in comparison to traditional π-aromatics, such as benzene, and were surprisingly unstable, susceptible to electrophilic attack, and relatively difficult to obtain. The dual-aromatics are basic in nature, but prefer not to be protonated when confronting more than three hydronium/ammonium ions, which violates common sense understanding of acid−base neutralization for a reason that is unclear. Here, we carried out 63 test simulations to explore the stability and reactivity of three basic heterocycle anions (pentazole anion N5¯, tetrazole anion N4C1H1¯, and 1,2,4-triazole anion N3C2H2¯) in four types of solvents (acidic ions, H3O+ and NH4+, polar organics, THF, and neutral organics, benzene) with different acidities and concentrations. By quantum mechanical calculations of the electron density, atomistic structure, interatomic interactions, molecular orbital, magnetic shielding, and energetics, we confirmed the presence of dual aromaticity in the heterocyclic anions, and discovered their reactivity to be a competition between their basicity and dual aromaticity. Interestingly, when the acidic ions H3O+/NH4+ are three times more in number than the basic heterocyclic anions, the anions turn to violate acid−base neutralization and remain unprotonated, and the surrounding acidic ions start to show a significant stabilization effect on the studied heterocyclic anions. This work brings new knowledge to nitrogen aromatics and the finding is expected to be adaptable for other pnictogen five-membered ring systems.

Summary The long-standing performance-stability contradiction issue of high energy density materials (HEDMs) is of extremely complex and multi-parameter nature. Herein, machine learning was employed to handle 28 feature descriptors and 5 properties of detonation and stability of 153 HEDMs, wherein all 21,648 data used were obtained through high-throughput crystal-level quantum mechanics calculations on supercomputers. Among five models, namely, extreme gradient boosting regression tree (XGBoost), adaptive boosting, random forest, multi-layer perceptron, and kernel ridge regression, were respectively trained and evaluated by stratified sampling and 5-fold cross-validation method. Among them, XGBoost model produced the best scoring metrics in predicting the detonation velocity, detonation pressure, heat of explosion, decomposition temperature, and lattice energy of HEDMs, and XGBoost predictions agreed best with the 1,383 experimental data collected from massive literatures. Feature importance analysis was conducted to obtain data-driven insight into the causality of the performance-stability contradiction and delivered the optimal range of key features for more efficient rational design of advanced HEDMs., Graphical abstract, Highlights • Crystal-level quantum mechanics calculations of 21,648 physicochemical data of 153 HEDMs • Machine learning of detonation and stability of HEDMs and experimental validation • Data-driven insight into the causality of performance-stability contradiction • Optimal range of key features for rational design of advanced HEDMs, Computational Materials Science; Computational Method in Materials Science; Energy Materials; Materials Design

The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on global economy and human communities. Promoting the accessibility and affordability of vaccine via diplomacy is the key to mitigating the pandemic crisis. China has been accused of seeking geopolitical objectives by launching vaccine diplomacy. The definition of vaccine diplomacy is neutral by nature. China’s vaccine diplomacy is based on its holistic approach to national security and the importance China attaches to the “Belt and Road” Initiative. With a whole-of-government approach on both the bilateral and multilateral levels and marketization of vaccines, China’s vaccine diplomacy has immense implications for global health governance, in that it helps to narrow the global immunization vaccination gap and to promote human-right-based approach to global health governance. However, the sustainability of China’s vaccine diplomacy is questionable because of the Sino-American geopolitical competition and doubts over the efficacy of China’s vaccines. The escalation of power rivalry between China and the U.S. and the concerns over the efficacy of China’s vaccines forebode the gloomy future of China’s vaccine diplomacy.

Understanding the performance of individual ions in salt solutions and the consequence of ionic hydration on hydrogen bonding network distortion, surface stress, and solution viscosity remains great challenge. We show herein findings pertained to alkali halide YX solutions using differential phonon spectroscopy (X = Cl, Br, I; Y = Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs): (i) an ion occupies eccentrically the tetrahedrally-coordinated interstitial of water to form a (±:4H2O:6H2O) hydration cell without bonding to H2O molecules; (ii) ionic polarization shortens and stiffens the H-O bond while does the O:H nonbond contrastingly; (iii) the screening of the hydrating water dipoles limits the cation hydration cell to be size invariant while the inter-anion repulsion reduces its hydration volume by weakening the anionic long-range electric field when the ionic separation shrinks; and (iv) the polarization of cation and anion dictates respectively the linear and the nonlinear part of Jones-Dale’s viscosity and surface stress. Findings would provide profound impact to the understanding and deep engineering of water, ice, and aqueous solutions.

Strontium titanate (SrTiO3) submicron-fibers with perovskite structure were successfully synthesized by electrospinning method. The nanomechanical properties of synthesized SrTiO3 were investigated by the novel amplitude modulation-frequency modulation (AM-FM) method based on atomic force microscope and nanoindentation technique. The results of AM-FM show that the resonant frequency of SrTiO3 submicron-fiber is lower than that of the Si substrate, which indicates that the Young’s modulus of SrTiO3 submicron-fiber is smaller than that of Si substrate in the range of 105–125 GPa. Nanoindentation further confirmed the results, showing a value of 104 ± 17 GPa. The atomic force microscope-based AM-FM provides us a new way to study the mechanical performance of low dimensional materials.

Reduced graphene oxide (RGO) and NiS sheets cocatalysts modified CdS hybrid photocatalysts were successfully synthesized via a facile solvothermal method for photocatalytic water splitting. RGO and NiS as cocatalysts can remarkably improve the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution and photoelectronchemical activity. High hydrogen evolution rate with 14.96 mmol h−1 g−1 has been achieved with 1 wt.% RGO and 5 mol% NiS emersion in CdS/NiS/RGO hybrid photocatalysts, which is 36.5 and 8.5 times than that of pure CdS and CdS-1%Pt. The excellent catalytic activity is attributed to the increased light absorption and reduced recombination of charge carries due to the synergetic effect between RGO and NiS. The work could provide some potential opportunities for designing other ternary hybrid photocatalysts for water splitting.

Multiferroic nanofibers with excellent mechanical properties have great potential applications in multifunctional nanodevices. BiFeO3-CoFe2O4 (BFO-CFO) composite nanofibers with different molar ratios were successfully synthesized by sol-gel-based electrospinning method. The mechanical properties of BFO-CFO composite nanofibers were examined by nanoindentation technique, and further investigated by amplitude modulation-frequency modulation (AM-FM) method based on atomic force microscopy (AFM). The results of AM-FM showed that the elastic moduli of BFO-CFO composite nanofibers increased with the increase of CFO ratio, which was consistent with the results of nanoindentation. These results indicated that AFM-based AM-FM is a powerful method for nondestructively investigating the mechanical properties of materials at nanoscale, and that the results of BFO-CFO composite nanofibers are also of practical importance for the future applications of multifunctional nanodevices.

Overdosing of Na(Cl, C5H8NO4) can raise one's blood pressure but moderately intaking of C6H8O6 ascorbic and C2H4O2 acetic acids effects contrastingly with mechanisms yet to be clear. From the perspective of hydrogen bond (O:H O or HB with “:” being electron lone pairs of oxygen) cooperativity, we show phonon-spectrometrically that solvation of the Na-based doses raises their solution surface tension by ionic polarization, but solvation of the organic acids performs contrastingly by dipolar fragilization. The Na-based doses dissolve into Na+ cations and anions that serve each as a charge center to cluster, stretch, and polarize the solvent O:H O bonds, raising the viscosity of the solution. However, the acidic dipoles break the solvation network into small fragments, helping to the blood flowing. Findings could offer workable mechanisms for hypertension medication and prevention.

Freezing-thawing cycling of salt solutions is ubiquitously important to fields varying from biochemistry to agriculture, climate, and geological engineering. However, understanding the dynamics of energy exchange and freezing-temperature TN shift during phase transition of the concentrated solutions remains elusive despite intensive investigations since the discovery of Homeister series in 1888. Here we address this issue by focusing on the performance of the hydrogen bond (O:H O) in the fraction fS molecules of the hydrating supersolid phase and in the remaining fraction fO molecules of the pristine phase during NaCl solution ice formation. The supersolid formation is related to the effect of ionic polarization that shortens and stiffens the H O bond, while lengthening and weakening the O:H non-bonding interactions in the hydration cells. The supersolid phase is gel-like, less dense, viscoelastic, and mechanically and thermally stable. We demonstrate that the polarization-weakening of the O:H non-bonding interactions of the supersolid phase reduces the TN of the solution and that the H O cooling contraction in the quasisolid (QS) phase of the pristine water absorbs energy during the Liquid-QS-Ice transition of solution. At fS = 1, neither TN nor energy absorption is resolved within the range of 273 ± 20 K. The least saturation number of molecules is 10 per pair of Na+ and Cl− ions. These findings shall help to develop solutions with tunable TN for practical applications and to understand the mechanism of energy exchange during phase transition in the temperature and time domains.

We proposed a mechanism to induce strong magnetism of up to 10.92 emu g-1 in hexagonal-phase arsenene nanoribbon (AsNR) from the perspective of edge quantum entrapment. Consistency between bond-order-length-strength correlation (BOLS) theory and density functional theory (DFT) calculations verified that: (i) the edge bond contraction of 9.54% deepened the edge potential well of AsNR, (ii) a net charge of 0.06 e- transferred from the inner region to the edge; and (iii) the edge quantum well polarized the unpaired electron and the net spin (antiferromagnetic or ferromagnetic depending on the width) is localized at the zigzag edge. The finding sheds a light on applications of AsNR in magnetic storage devices.

Solvation of aldehydes and formic acids has an important impact to health care because these additives can damage DNA and denature proteins causing cancers with the mechanism behind remaining great challenge. From the perspective of solvent hydrogen bond (O:HO or HB with “:” being the electron lone pair of oxygen) transition from the mode of the ordinary water to the hydrating states, we examined the solvation bonding dynamics and the solute capabilities of O:HO bond and surface stress transition using differential Raman spectroscopy and contact angle detection. Results suggest that besides the short-range O:H van der Waals (vdW) bond, the H ↔ H and O: ⇔ :O repulsive intermolecular interactions, and the molecular dipolar polarization play important roles in disrupting the solution network and surface stress. Observations may infer the manner of DNA fragmentation by aldehyde and formic acid disruption. Accepted version

Raman phonon differential spectrometrics (DPS) and contact angle measurements resolved that solvation of the NaX (X = HSO4, NO3, ClO4, SCN) complex salts stiffens the H O stretching phonon from 3200 to ~ 3500 cm− 1 and softens the O:H nonbond phonon from 180 to ~ 70 cm− 1 with rising of solution surface stress. The solute capability of bond transition in terms of the fraction coefficient, follows the relation, fNaX(C) ∝ 1-exp(− C/C0) towards saturation, with C being the solute concentration and C0 the decay constant. Observations evidence that: (i) the solute ionic field electrification aligns, stretches, and polarizes its neighboring H2O molecules, which shortens the H O bond but lengthens the O:H nonbond via O O Coulomb repulsion; (ii) the effect of X− electrification on the O:H O bond relaxation varies with solute type and solute concentration. Exercises not only verify the essentiality of solvent O:H O bond cooperative relaxation and polarization but also demonstrate the power of DPS that resolves processes occurred upon solvation.

Solvation of acid, base, and salt is ubiquitously important to all subject areas in chemistry, health care and life science. However, fine resolution of the solvation dynamics, solute-solvent molecular interactions, and solute capability of transforming the hydrogen bond (O:H O, or HB) and surface stress remain great challenge. Incorporating the notion of O:H O bond cooperativity with a strategy of differential phonon spectroscopy (DPS) has enabled resolution on the fraction and stiffness of the solvent HB from the mode of water to the hydration shells upon NaOH, NaI and HI solvation. Results show that Na+ and I+ ionic polarization shortens the H O bond and stiffens its phonon from 3200 to 3500 cm− 1 in the hydration shells. The H+ in the HI solution forms a H ↔ H anti-HB that disrupts the solution network and surface stress. The excessive electron lone pairs of OH– form the O : ⇔ : O super-HB that compresses the network, sharing the same effect of mechanical compression shifting the H O phonon from above 3100 cm− 1 to its below; the solute H O bond performs the same to the H O dangling bond at surface featured at 3610 cm− 1. The fraction coefficients or phonon abundance transition, fH = 0, fHO ∝ C, and fx ∝ 1-exp(− C/C0) (x = Na+ and I− and C the solute concentration) towards saturation, feature the solute capability of HB transformation. Practice not only confirms the essentiality of the H ↔ H anti-HB point fragilization, the O : ⇔ : O super-HB point compression, and the ionic polarization to the performance of the respective HI, NaOH, and NaI solutions, but also demonstrate the power of the DPS that enables fine-resolution of solvation dynamics and solute capabilities.

Objective To investigate whether selected cytokines are detectable in the embryo culture medium (EM) of human preimplantation embryos (HPE) and what the relationship is of the cytokines with clinical outcomes. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting University-affiliated tertiary teaching hospital. Patient(s) Three-hundred and thirty infertile women who underwent fresh cycle in vitro fertilization (IVF) between January and December 2014. Intervention(s) Collection on the day of transfer of the EM of each embryo that was transferred in all patients for measurement of cytokine levels. Main Outcome Measure(s) Measurement of 13 selected cytokines in the EM of day-3 HPE to analyze the relationship of the cytokine with embryo quality and clinical outcome. Result(s) Of the cytokines measured, only interleukin-8 (IL-8) was statistically significantly associated with clinical outcome. The rate of detectable IL-8 in the EM was 32.42%, and the pregnancy rate, implantation rate, and number of live births per in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection patient (N LBPP) were higher, and 0 IR was lower in patients for whom the medium from transferred embryos was positive for IL-8 (IL-8 positive group) compared with the patients for whom the medium tested negative for IL-8 (IL-8 negative group). Compared with the IL-8 negative group, a higher pregnancy rate was observed in the IL-8 positive group when the patients received equal good–ordinary quality embryos. Conclusion(s) In the EM from HPE, IL-8 is associated with higher pregnancy rates, higher IRs, and higher N LBPP, so IL-8 may be an independent predictor for pretransfer assessment of the embryo development potential in IVF patients.

A combination of photoelectron spectrometric analysis and density functional theory calculations has enabled reconciliation of the bond-energy-electron relaxation for the Ta(100, 110, 111) surfaces chemisorbed with oxygen at different coverages. Results show that increasing oxygen coverage lowers the adsorption energy associated with lattice reconstruction. Valence electrons transfer from Ta surface atoms to oxygen to create four excessive DOS features in terms of O Ta bonding, lone pairs of oxygen, Ta+ electron holes, and polarized Ta dipoles. Oxidation proceeds in the following dynamics: oxygen gets electrons from two neighboring Ta atoms left behind Ta+; the sp3-orbital hybridization takes place with additional two electron lone pairs, the lone pairs polarize the other two Ta neighbors becoming dipoles. X-ray photoelectron spectral analysis results in the 4f binding energy of an isolated Ta atom and its shift upon bond formation and oxidation. Exercises provide not only a promising numerical approach for the quantitative information about the bond and electronic behavior but also consistent insight into the electronic dynamics of metal oxidation.

The presence of the nonbonding XH tension constrains and the presence of the anti or super hydrogen bond fosters the explosion in aqueous alkali and molten alkali halides; the combination of the coupled hydrogen bond and the repulsive anti or super hydrogen bond not only stabilzes the structure but also stores energy of the energetic molecular assemblies by shortening all covalent bonds., Comment: 4 figure, 3500 works

The inter oxygen repulsion opposes compression minimizing the compressibility. Polarization enlarges the bandgap and the dielectric permittivity of water ice by raising the nonbonding states above the Fermi energy. Progress evidences the efficiency and essentiality of the coupled hydrogen bonding and electronic dynamics in revealing the core physics and chemistry of water ice, which could extend to other molecular crystals such as energetic materials., Comment: 15 k words, 118 refs, 17 figures

Density functional computation revealed that in YOH solvation (Y = Li, Na, and K), the Y+ cation locates eccentrically at the interstitial hollow site to form the Y+·4H2O unit, and the hydroxyl adds an excessive electron lone pair ":" to form a OH-·H2O unit where the hydroxide stays in the the center. The surrounding four oriented H2O neighbors interact with the Y+ through Y+ ↔ H+ repulsion and Y+:O2- attraction, causing the Y+ eccentric dislocation by some 0.80 A. The ":" turns one O:H-O bond into the O: ⇔ :O super hydrogen bond by altering H2O·4H2O into HO-·4H2O. The repulsive Y+ ↔ H+ enlarges its separation and the attractive Y+:O shortens itself, showing the anisotropic polarization of the Y+ cation. The anisotropic Y+ polarizability, O: ⇔ :O compressibility, and the H-O bond contraction of the solute OH- distorts the solute bonding network and disperses the O:H-O segmental phonon frequencies, as confirmed spectroscopically.

Raman spectroscopy is employed to investigate bond phonon relaxation of layered (Mo, W)‐(S 2 , Se 2 ) by using the stimuli of number‐of‐layer. The results demonstrate that the dimer interaction dictates the blue shift of the E 1 2g phonon but the collective interaction of an atom with its z ‐neighbors governs the red shift of the A 1g phonon dynamics as the number‐of‐layer reduces.

Skins of water and ice perform anomalously in capacities of hydrophobicity, lubricity, mass density, thermal stability, viscoelasticity, and phonon frequency with yet little knowledge about the mechanism behind these anomalies. We present the recent progress in this regard from the perspective of molecular undercoordination induced O:H-O bond segmental cooperative relaxation and nonbonding electron polarization. The skin molecular undercoordination shortens the intramolecular H-O covalent bond spontaneously from 1.0 to 0.84 Ǻ, while the Coulomb repulsion between oxygen anions lengthens the intermolecular O:H nonbond from 1.70 to 2.71 Ǻ associated with strong polarization. The O:H-O resultant elongation depresses the mass density to 0.75 g/cm 3 ; the polarization results the skin high stress, hydrophobicity, lubricity, viscoelasticity; the H-O contraction shifts its stretching vibration frequency from the bulk value of 3150 to 3450 cm -1 at skin and to 3650 cm -1 of vapor; the O:H elongation shifts its stretching mode from 210 of bulk to 180 cm -1 at skin. Therefore, molecular undercoordination induced O:H-O bond relaxation and the associated polarization govern the performance of molecules at the skins of water and ice.

Although the alcohol–water mixtures are ubiquitously important to beverage and pharmacy industries, it remains yet puzzling how the alcohols interact with water molecules and how the alcohol molecules functionalize the hydrogen bond network of liquid water and body fluid. We show spectrometrically that alcohol hydration softens both the H–O bond and the O:H nonbond through hydrogen bond cooperative relaxation and associated charge polarization. Observations suggested that each of the dangling hydroxide group :O:H− (interacts with :O or –H+) and the dangling methyl group C–H+ (with –H+ or :O) is equally capable of interacting with H2O molecules in the form of O:↔:O point compressor, H+↔H+ point breaker, and O:H–O hydrogen bond at the alcohol–water interface without charge sharing or new bond formation. The alcohol–water O:H–O formation enables the solubility and hydrophilicity of the alcohol; the H+↔H+ breaker embrittles the hydration network; the O:↔:O compression shortens the O:H nonbond and lengthens the H–O bond. H–O softening is associated with heat emission and depression of solution melting temperature; the O:H nonbond softening (due to polarization) lowers the critical temperatures for freezing. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We show phonon spectrometrically that the unprecedented H 2 O: ↔ :O:H – compression resolves the performance of the base solution networks with “:” being the electron lone pair of oxygen. At hydration, LiOH, NaOH, KOH molecules dissolve each into a :O:H – hydroxide and cations of Li + , Na + , and K + , respectively. The cations serve as charge centers to polarize the neighboring water molecules and raise the solution skin stress (or surface tension). The :O:H – tetrahedron adds, however, three lone pairs and one bonded H + proton to the solution matrix, turning the initially 2N lone pairs into 2N + 3 and the 2N bonded H + into 2N + 1 with an additional O 2– anion. This hydration process breaks the conservation of the 2N lone pairs and protons with two extra lone pairs that only can form a H 2 O: ↔ :O:H – super hydrogen bond (super-HB) with strong repulsivity. In addition to the H O bond of the :O:H – featured at 3610 cm − 1 , the internal H 2 O: ↔ :O:H – compression has an identical effect of mechanical compression, shortening the O:H nonbonds and stiffening their phonons from below 200 cm − 1 to the above. Meanwhile, compression lengthens the network H O bonds and softens their phonons from above 3150 cm − 1 to below. The network H O bonds elongation decreases their energy from ~ 4.0 to ~ 2.7 eV at hydration, which heats the solution as one often observes. The H 2 O: ↔ :O:H – super-HB compressor and the alkali cation polarizor form the keys to the base hydration networks and the properties.