Abstract
In this work we review the literature for possible confirmation of a phenomenon that was proposed to develop when water is left to stand for some time undisturbed in closed vessels. The phenomenon has been termed thixotropy of water due to the weak gel-like behaviour which may develop spontaneously over time where ions and contact with hydrophilic surfaces seem to play important roles. Thixotropy is a property of certain gels and liquids that under normal conditions are highly viscous, whereas during mechanical processing their viscosity diminishes. We found experiments indicating water’s self-organizing properties, long-lived inhomogeneities and time-dependent changes in the spectral parameters of aqueous systems. The large-scale inhomogeneities in aqueous solutions seem to occur in a vast number of systems. Long-term spectral changes of aqueous systems were observed even though the source of radiation was switched off or removed. And water was considered to be an active excitable medium in which appropriate conditions for self-organization can be established. In short, the thixotropic phenomenon of water is further indicated by different experimental techniques and may be triggered by large-scale ordering of water in the vicinity of nucleating solutes and hydrophilic surfaces.
Highlights
Liquid water has a complicated molecular-scale structure that is still not perfectly understood
With 175 papers devoted to water hydrating hydrophilic surfaces which showed that interfacial water may have a thickness of from tens to hundreds of molecular layers, and not just a few as usually believed. This result emerged from exploration of the luminescent properties of different aqueous solutions of dyes which depend strongly on the physical state of water, structured by different properties of the surface. Based on these experimental results, Szent-Györgyi proposed that the thick layers of organized water adjacent to hydrophilic surfaces could allow very long lasting electronic excitations that may play a significant role in energy transfer near cell surfaces, where water resides in a state similar to a liquid crystal
It appears that the existence of large-scale, long-lived inhomogeneities is a rather universal phenomenon occurring in a vast number of aqueous systems
Summary
Liquid water has a complicated molecular-scale structure that is still not perfectly understood. In a previous study [6,7] we continued the work of Elia [8] who explored the physico-chemical properties of aqueous solutions of NaHCO3 treated mechanically by iterating dilution and succussion (vigorous shaking) They repeated the processes to extreme dilution, to form extremely dilute solutions (EDS), where the chemical composition of the end solution was identical to that of the solvent. Since the concentration of the unknown impurities was substantially lower in comparison to the amount of added electrolyte (0.5 M NaCl) and the temporal evolution of the electrical conductivity of up to 500 days features a maximum followed by a return to initial values, the presence of the unknown impurities was proven to be insignificant [12] They attributed their unusual results to water’s self-organizing abilities triggered by the input of kinetic energy during vigorous shaking which induces the ordering of water molecules. Changes in viscosity of aqueous systems upon mechanical treatment are discussed
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