Charge Separation in Water Molecule Clusters under Thermal
Fluctuations: 2. IonizationRecombination Equilibrium

S. V. Shevkunov

St. Petersburg State Technical University, Politekhnicheskaya ul. 29, St. Petersburg, 195251 Russia

e-mail: root@svsh.tu.neva.ru

Received October 8, 2007

Abstract—The dependence of the mean force potential of interaction between H₃O⁺ and OH^– ions in water
molecule clusters is calculated by the Monte Carlo method in a grand canonical statistical ensemble at temper-
ature of 273 K within a broad range of vapor pressures corresponding to natural atmospheric conditions. A high
(up to 200 k_BT) barrier, which resulted in the retardation of recombination in clusters, as well as the accumula-
tion of nonrecombined ion pairs, is revealed based on the dependence of the mean force potential on the inte-
rionic distance. Using parameters calculated by the Monte Carlo method, we solved the kinetic equation for the
stationary regime of the production and recombination of ion pairs and evaluated the relative concentration of
ion pairs and relaxation time, which are consistent with experimental values and explain the enhanced sensitiv-
ity of electric properties of water vapors to the sources of ionizing radiation observed in experiments.

DOI: 10.1134/S1061933X08050153

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