Two simultaneous forms of liquid water. Free Technical Library News

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Two simultaneous forms of liquid water

20.07.2017

From the school physics course, we know that water, one of the most common substances on the globe, can exist in three forms - in the form of water vapor, liquid and ice. However, a group of researchers from Sweden found out that in reality everything is much more complicated, at low temperatures close to the freezing point, water is a mixture of two liquids that are radically different from each other in density and molecular structure.

"Under certain boundary conditions, water behaves very strangely," says Anders Nilsson, professor of physical chemistry at Stockholm University. "At low temperatures, water exists as a mixture of two different liquids."

Exploring the molecular structure of water cooled almost to the freezing point using X-rays, scientists discovered the presence of two types of liquid in the volume of water, with high density and with a lower one, differing from each other in the spatial position of water molecules and their number per unit volume. This fact serves as the first proof of the theory put forward by Anders Nilson some years ago, according to which all water on Earth is in constant motion, passing from one form to another. And these phase transitions, which affect infinitesimal volumes of water, last only a few picoseconds.

If the "dual character" of water can be confirmed by other studies, this will explain some of the unusual properties of liquid water, in particular its high heat capacity, and the fact that water only reaches its maximum density at temperatures of 4 degrees Celsius and above.

It is still not entirely clear what practical things the discovery made by Swedish scientists can lead to. However, a better understanding of the properties of water could lead to the development of new and more efficient technologies for purification and desalination, which in turn will be the solution to one of the most pressing problems in some parts of the world.

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