Abstract
BackgroundThe anomalous properties of water have been of great interest for generations of scientists. However the impact of small amount of deuterium content which is always present in water has never been explored before. For the first time the fundamental properties of deuterium depleted (light) water at 4°C and 20°C are here presented.ResultsThe obtained results show the important role of the deuterium in the properties of bulk water. At 4°C the lowest value of the kinematic viscosity (1.46 mm2/s) has been found for 96.5 ppm D/H ratio. The significant deviation in surface tension values has been observed in deuterium depleted water samples at the both temperature regimes. The experimental data provides direct evidence that density, surface tension and viscosity anomalies of water are caused by the presence of variable concentration of deuterium which leads to the formation of water clusters of different size and quantity.ConclusionsThe investigated properties of light water reveal the origin of the water anomalies. The new theoretical model of cluster formation with account of isotope effect is proposed.
Highlights
For over thousand years water kept its secrets
In this work we investigate the effect of these small quantities of D2O in normal water by elaborating the extreme case of the deuterium depleted water i.e. light water
An increase in temperature leads to a significant reduction of the viscosity and surface tension values
Summary
For over thousand years water kept its secrets. At the first glance water seems to be one of the most simple and abundant substances, in addition to H2O it has H3O+, OH−, HOD, and OD− moieties [1] which are in part responsible for the multifold of unusual properties. There have been numerous attempts to explain the anomalies of water (Pauling’s, Robinson, Takahashi, Chaplin’s two states model etc.) [2,3,4,5,6,7]. The existence of density inhomogeneities in liquid water has been called into question recently [9]. The attempts to interpret the x-ray diffraction data to probe the molecular arrangement even in the first coordination shell of liquid water can not provide unambiguous structural information [10,11,12]. The impact of small amount of deuterium content which is always present in water has never been explored before. For the first time the fundamental properties of deuterium depleted (light) water at 4°C and 20°C are here presented
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