Aqueous basic solutions: hydroxide solvation, structural diffusion, and comparison to the hydrated proton.

Many hydrogen-bonded liquids, molecular solids, and lowdimensional systems support anomalous diffusion mechanisms of topological charge defects created by the addition or removal of protons. The most familiar examples are the “classic” cases of aqueous acidic and basic solutions,1 where the defects appear in the form of hydrated hydronium (H3O) and hydroxide (OH-) ions, denoted as H+(aq) and OH-(aq), respectively.2 While anomalous charge migration has important consequences in chemical,1,3,4 biological,5-8 and technological9,10 applications, Vide infra, providing a molecular-level, mechanistic understanding of the fascinating physical principles underlying the charge transport process is a challenging, yet fundamental, problem in physical chemistry.11