Normal but complicated water

2004/07/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Kimika

It is the most common chemical, with a very short formula. However, water has many special characteristics and now researchers have found another in Germany: liquid water, very dense. This discovery can be a breakthrough to confirm the theory of liquid phases.

This theory holds that water has two liquid phases at very low temperatures: high density and low density. However, so far they have never managed to isolate this type of liquids, since it can only exist below -45ºC. Of course, at that temperature normally the water is frozen.

Scientists, through x-rays, looked at the border between an ice block and a silicon block and saw the narrow layer of water. This liquid layer was 17% denser than normal water. The temperature was 17ºC, but according to the researchers, because the layer was so narrow, the molecules were not very likely to move. Therefore, the effective temperature was much lower, around -45ºC.