biostudies-literatureWang TNational Natural Science Foundation of ChinaNational Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China)11517https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC12748990biostudies-literatureUnknown16(1)Structural characterization of archetypal water clusters is essential for exploring the nature of aqueous hydrogen-bonding interactions that are responsible for the properties of water. While spectroscopic measurement of interference-free neutral water clusters has been proven to be challenging due to the difficulty in size selection, recent studies have successfully measured the infrared spectra of small water clusters (H<sub>2</sub>O)<sub>n</sub> (n = 2-10). Thus far, experimental evidence for structural motifs of larger water clusters (H<sub>2</sub>O)<sub>n</sub> (n ≥ 11) without environmental perturbation such as an ultraviolet-chromophore label, a messenger tag, or a host matrix has been lacking. Here utilizing the recently-developed size-specific infrared spectroscopy apparatus with Nature communicationsExperimental determination of structural motifs of interference-free water undecamer cluster (H&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O)&lt;sub&gt;11&lt;/sub&gt;.PMC1274899022125303Li GZhang YYYang JLi JJiang LJiang SLu JBWu GYan WZhang WYang XHu HSZheng HLi SXie HWang TfalseExperimental determination of structural motifs of interference-free water undecamer cluster (H&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O)&lt;sub&gt;11&lt;/sub&gt;.Structural characterization of archetypal water clusters is essential for exploring the nature of aqueous hydrogen-bonding interactions that are responsible for the properties of water. While spectroscopic measurement of interference-free neutral water clusters has been proven to be challenging due to the difficulty in size selection, recent studies have successfully measured the infrared spectra of small water clusters (H<sub>2</sub>O)<sub>n</sub> (n = 2-10). Thus far, experimental evidence for structural motifs of larger water clusters (H<sub>2</sub>O)<sub>n</sub> (n ≥ 11) without environmental perturbation such as an ultraviolet-chromophore label, a messenger tag, or a host matrix has been lacking. Here utilizing the recently-developed size-specific infrared spectroscopy apparatus with 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z2025 Dec2026-06-06T09:10:49.438Z2026-05-28T03:12:23.628ZS-EPMC127489904139076210.1038/s41467-025-66717-5