Investigation of the properties of water II

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When water vapor condenses on the surface of silica (such as fused quartz) either normal water or “anomalous” water may form, depending on the conditions of condensation. Studies of the kinetics of evaporation and condensation together with studies of phase separation in anomalous columns at sub-zero temperatures show that anomalous water is a solution of a less volatile component, which we call water II, in ordinary water I. By means of physicochemical microanalysis procedures specially developed in these studies we measured the density, refractive index, saturated vapor density, heat of evaporation, and thermal stability of water II. The molecular weight of water II was determined from the vapor pressure lowering of its solution in water I and found to be 180 ± 40. Corroborating results were obtained when the molecular weight was determined by the melting point and from the curve of phase separation at subzero temperatures. The only explanation that fits all our data is that water II consists of associated water I molecules. Further development of the “polymer” hypothesis of water II is due to Lippincott, Stromberg, L. Allen, and other U.S. scientists, and is supported by the results of infrared spectrum studies. Lippincott's work also confirms our data on modifications of methyl alcohol and acetic acid. Another hypothesis, often put forward to explain all these phenomena, the contamination hypothesis, cannot account for all of the experimental data. The hypothesis attributing the properties of anomalous water to organic impurities was disproved by analytical measurements carried out by us in collaboration with the laboratory of V. L. Talroze and by the surface tension determinations of anomalous water. Dissolving water II in water I was found to increase the surface tension of water I by several percent, which contradicts the idea that water II can be traced to organic impurities. It appeared from the start that the properties of anomalous water could not be due to leaching of the quartz containers; this contention is supported by the results of electron probes and by other data. The idea of accidental inorganic contamination is refuted by the consistent reproducibility of the phenomenon and properties of water II, obtained in our laboratory and under various conditions. Finally, the conversion (to within 10%) of the mass of water II to water I when distilled over a thermal barrier of sufficiently high temperature is also evidence that water II is a polymer of water I.