Water separates into two different liquids at low temperatures: Research
PremiumFresh evidence that water can change from one form of liquid into another, denser liquid, has been uncovered by researchers
Beyond the popular belief that water can exist in primarily three physical states, researchers at the University of Birmingham and Sapienza Università di Roma have unveiled a unique property that water can change and turn into two different liquids in what is called a phase transition. This idea was first proposed three decades ago. However, this phase transition happens at extremely cold temperatures.
In our common knowledge, we have been taught that water turns solid into ice at low temperatures and practically it does which remained the biggest challenge in confirming the theory that had been baffling scientists for nearly 30 years.
Researchers stated the reason behind liquid-liquid transition remains mostly unknown because the hidden chemical workings inside water are responsible for this phenomenon.
The findings of the study that have been published in the journal Nature Physics, state that a salient feature of liquid water is the anomalous behaviour of its thermodynamic response functions upon cooling, the most famous being the maximum density at ambient pressure.
Professor at Sapienza Università di Roma and a co-author of the study, Francesco Sciortino, was part of the original team, which in 1992 proposed the idea of a liquid-liquid phase transition in water. He said, "In this work, we propose, for the first time, a view of the liquid-liquid phase transition based on network entanglement ideas. I am sure this work will inspire novel theoretical modelling based on topological concepts."
In explaining the phenomenon, we need to understand the molecular structure and linkages, while the high-density liquid form has molecules arranged in such a way that they resemble a pretzel, they are entangled, while the molecules in the low-density form mostly have rings and are therefore dubbed untangled.
The researchers, according to the University of Birmingham, used a colloidal model of water in their simulation, and then two widely used molecular models of water. Colloids are particles that can be a thousand times larger than a single water molecule. By virtue of their relatively bigger size, and hence slower movements.
Dr. Dwaipayan Chakrabarti, the lead author of the paper, said in a statement, “This colloidal model of water provides a magnifying glass into molecular water, and enables us to unravel the secrets of water concerning the tale of two liquids."
Sciortino added that, "Water, one after the other, reveals its secrets! Dream how beautiful it would be if we could look inside the liquid and observe the dancing of the water molecules, the way they flicker, and the way they exchange partners, restructuring the hydrogen bond network."
The team expects that the model they have devised will pave the way for new experiments that will validate the theory and extend the concept of ‘entangled’ liquids to other liquids such as silicon.
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