Stability of Water Clusters: Implication for Atmospheric Hydrated Clusters and Aerosols

In view of the importance of understanding vapor phase water molecules and clusters in the presence of pre-existing aerosols, the stability of water clusters as a function of size is studied by evaluating the hydrogen-bond energy per bond, based on our modified quantum chemical approach using the semi-empirical method known as MNDO. The relevance of our present study to atmospherically and environmentally important gas-to-particle conversion processes is stressed