The Studies Of The Vicinal Water Properties By Means Of The Thermal Analysis Techniques
THE STUDIES OF THE VICINAL WATER PROPERTIES BY MEANS OF THE THERMAL ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES
P. Staszczuk
Department of Physicochemistry of Solid Surface, Faculty of Chemistry
Maria Curie-Sklodowska University,
Maria Curie Sklodowska sq. 3, 20-031 Lublin, Poland
At the end of the last century, Röntgen in 1882 suggested the existence of bulky and dense states in liquid water in order to account for the density maximum in liquid water. As early as 1912, Hardy recognized that interfacial liquids might be modified by proximity to solid surfaces. The differences in water properties were also observed by Deriaguin (in 1933), Henniker (in 1949), Jakobsen (in 1953), Drost-Hansen (in 1969) and in our Laboratory (in 1983). The initial hypotheses and qualitative investigations were confirmed and completed with the quantitative data presented in many papers. Some technical problems such as solidification, material resistance, shrinkage and expanding are associated with it. The complex heterogeneous processes occurring in dispersed system are also associated with the process of water adsorption on the surface.
The term vicinal water refers to the water present close to the solid surfaces. Compared with common water, the vicinal water is structurally modified due to the interactions of molecules with active centers of the solid surfaces. The change of structure causes the change of other properties of the near surface water film. These changes should be considered as the far reach ones compared with the classical effects of the double electrical layer. The phenomenon of change of the far from the surface layer structure results from the structure induction in the next layers due to the interactions with the solid surface and macromolecules and then by those of the changed structure which are as the matrix for the next ones. A detailed range off water film property change is not fully known. As follows from the recent studies it is of the order from 2,5 to 150 nm i.e. from 30 to 100 molecular diameters of the water molecule.
Taking into account a vast subject matter connected with the specific water properties important for living organisms, it points out those most
important ones responsible for the life medium. If water had not existed or if it had possessed different properties, it is doubtful, whether life would have existed. Water has been and still is the goods of the highest value as it is an indispensable component of food, it is also necessary in the nourishment of animals and plants that is everything which is living. Therefore water has been an object of interest of philosophers and scientists for centuries. Almost all ancient peoples in both hemispheres worshipped water which can be found in their religions, legends and customs. The old Arabic proverb says Life is where there is water. In the philosophical ideas of Aristotle in IV century B.C. water is one of four basic matter elements (water, fire, air, soil). In VI century B.C.Tales from Milet believed that everything on the Earth was formed from water which is an element of the universe. In the Bible in The Book of Mankind we can read: The Earth was a chaos and a wasteland and over the immense waters there was darkness.
The presence of water on the globe in three states of matter is common. As generally known 70 % of our planet is covered with water. This enormous mass of water is one of the most important climatological factors. Having relatively high melting and boiling temperatures, contrary to other hydrides of VI group in the periodical table at the so called biotic temperatures water is a liquid. This enables life in the earth climate and arrangement of cellular processes like e.g. metabolism, water should melt at – 90 ° and boil at – 70° C. We know 36 isotopes of water because there are3 isotopes of hydrogen and 6 isotopes of oxygen. The specific heat as well as evaporation and melting heats are anomalously high. This makes water a large storage of heat both on the earth and in the organism. In the cell water is a temperature stabilizer and the factor buffering thermal changes. The above mentioned properties and quite good thermal conductivity cause that water in the organism is a mean enabling a quick and accurate regulation of temperature owing to circulation e.g. of blood whose 80 % content is water. In turn, relatively low viscosity and density facilitate the flow of macromolecules through the organic membranes and their translocation in the cytoplasm. The water structure in living organisms, particularly, in cells, is the most important characteristics responsible for many living processes. As mentioned earlier, bound water constitutes 90 % of water in the human organism. The bound water structure always changes with the rate of 10-12 sec. Such periodical changes in the water structure are very useful in biological systems. It is known that constant movement and transformations are predominant features of cell life. According to Pauling the consciousness processes are accompanied by water structure pulsation in the cytoplasm of the cortex neurons. However, the action of drugs would consist in preservation and toughening of this structure.
Positive and negative charges conductivity is an interesting property of bound (ice-like) water. This conductivity is exceptionally quick owing not to diffusion but to charge transport through hydrogen bonds. The quantum-mechanical tunnel passage is responsible for the rate of this process. Proton mobility in the ice-like structures is only 50 times as well as electron mobility in semi-conductors and some metals which is of great importance for many metabolic processes (e.g. at chemo- and photophosporylation). As generally known, kidneys are responsible for the water balance and removal of protein transformation products from the organisms. During a day and night there flows through the man’s kidneys about 1500 litres of blood from which 180 l of so called primary urine produced. After concentration of protein transformation products, kidneys resorb again 178-179 l water into the organism. Disturbance in the kidneys work which are so important both for people and animals e.g. in nephrolithiasis gives disagreeable results.
Water flows also through plants in great amounts (respiration) e.g. to produce 1 kg of wheat 300-560 l water is used up. The above examples show that water flows continuously through living organisms. Water is necessary for them in large amounts but only its small part remains in the plants. Therefore disturbance of the quantitative ratio of water concentration to the concentration of other substances (among others change of pH) caused by its lack in the food or excessive removal can lead to drastic results. As an example 12 % water loss for man (that is about 6 l) can be tragic because blood becomes so dense that the heart cannot pump it along the blood vessels.
Water bound in the cell cytoplasm shows still another interesting property. There is a hypothesis that it can resonate with the cosmic proton radiation and with microwaves of water vein of the frequency 1420 MHz and the length 21 cm. It proves that water molecules can correspond to the resonance radiation of extremely small intensity 10-20 J. So far there has not been built a detector which could register such small radiation except a biophysical detector (a dowsing-rod). Microwave radiation of water veins can deform the own microwave field of the body cell which transforms into the tumorous cell. Then the gene responsible for communication between a given cell and the rest of the organism becomes probably put out of action.
In the past two decades in order to understand the unusual character of vicinal water the author’s carry out the studies of the physicochemical properties of water films by means of the adsorption and thermal analysis methods. The most important results confirming existence vicinal water on solid surfaces have been presented.
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