Superdense water

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Physical chemists regard the properties of liquids as essentially invariant. When comparing them with gases we can see that they are only slightly compressible.

In contrast to crystalline solids liquids do not exhibit variability. These and some other characteristic properties of liquids were the reason that the commonest of them viz. (namely) water was adopted as the basis for the definition of several international standards of measurement. The freezing point of water (saturated with air at 1 atm pressure) is taken as 0°C and the boiling point of water at 1 atm is taken as 100°C.

The unit of volume in the metric system is chosen so that 1 ml of water at 3.98°C (the temperature of its maximum density) weighs 1.000 g/cm³. The choice of a cubic centimetre of water as the international unit of mass has been motivated by the fact that any given sample of water has a maximum density at a special temperature, near which small changes in the temperature cause very small changes in the density, and hence negligible changes in the mass of standard volume.

Having carried out a number of investigations the scientists made a very interesting discovery, i.e. a new stable form of water having the density almost one and a half times that of ordinary water was obtained. This water was named Water II. Having examined its properties they found out that its index of refraction was equal to about 1.48 to 1.49. But when Water II was diluted with ordinary water (Water I) this value dropped to the value for pure water, i.e. 1.33. Having continued their work the scientists stated that the density of Water II was equal to that of pure water. Then it was very important to learn the stability of the molecules of Water II and the forces responsible for their stability.

It was assumed that under the impact of the electrons on the molecules of Water II, these molecules are immediately broken down into ordinary molecules of H₂O. And that Water II in solution has a definite molecular weight that is approximately 10 times larger than that of ordinary water.

Many scientists working in this field got interested in it. Thus the Russian scientist O.F. Vasiliev has expressed the hypothesis that noctilucent clouds consist of drops of Water II which in contrast to drops of ordinary water may remain at a height of 90 kilometres without being evaporated.

Some scientists suggested the possibility that on Venus water exists mainly in the form of Water II. This question attracted the attention of many scientists and will be discussed in future.

Дата добавления: 2014-10-31