Mol. Phys. 97, 897-905 (1999)
(a) Departament de Física Fonamental, Universitat de Barcelona, Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.,
(b) Departament de Física i Enginyeria Nuclear, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Sor Eulàlia d'Anzizu s.n., B4-B5, 08034, Barcelona, Spain.
Molecular dynamics simulations of liquid ethanol at three temperatures have been carried out. The hydrogen bonding states of ethanol
molecules have been characterized by the number of hydrogen bonds in which the molecules participate. It is observed that the mean
lifetimes of molecules in each hydrogen bonding state are markedly dependent on the temperature. Moreover, molecules with one hydrogen
bond are more stable when they are donors than when they are accepters. The dependence of the reorientational correlation functions on the
hydrogen bonding state of molecules has been studied carefully. The decay of these functions is slower for molecules with higher numbers
of hydrogen bonds and also becomes slower as temperature decreases. The relaxation for molecules with only one hydrogen bond is faster
for those acting as proton donors than for those acting as proton accepters. Finally, the results obtained by computer simulation are
compared with those from recent measurements of the frequency-dependent dielectric permittivity of liquid ethanol.