Effect of H-bond topology on the lifetimes of cagelike water clusters immersed in liquid water and the probability distribution of these lifetimes: Implications for hydrate nucleation mechanisms

We perform molecular dynamics simulations to study whether the H-bond topology affects the lifetimes of cagelike water clusters immersed in liquid water. Six clusters with H-bond topologies of different energy levels are considered. The lifetimes of each cluster are measured 200 times independently. Statistical analyses show that the H-bond topology has no effect on the lifetimes and the lifetime data obey the lognormal distribution. The implications of these results for the studies on gas hydrate nucleation mechanisms are discussed.