First principles study of the hydrated electron
When an extra electron is added to water, after about 1.2 ps a cavity is cleaved and six water molecules form a solvation shell in which each surrounding H20 points (at least) one of its H atom towards the cloud (in blue) representing the electron charge distribution.
Sequence of the evolution of the solvated electron leading to the formation of a single solvation shell:
AVI movie (encoded with DivX)
Data simulation by Mauro Boero, Joint Research Center for Atom Technology (Japan)