Poly +water

The reports were that water condensed from the vapor phase into 10-100-/im quartz or pyrex capillaries had physical properties distinctly different from those of bulk liquid water. Confirmations came from a variety of laboratories around the world (see the August 1971 issue of Journal of Colloid Interface Science), and it was proposed that a new phase of water had been found many called this water polywater rather than the original Deijaguin term, anomalous water. There were confirming theoretical calculations (see Refs. 121, 122) Eventually, however, it was determined that the micro-amoimts of water that could be isolated from small capillaries was always contaminated by salts and other impurities leached from the walls. The nonexistence of anomalous or poly water as a new, pure phase of water was acknowledged in 1974 by Deijaguin and co-workers [123]. There is a mass of fascinating anecdotal history omitted here for lack of space but told very well by Frank [124]. 

The effect of tetrachlorate ions on water structure has been investigated with laser Raman spectra by Walrafen 213), and Lippin-cott etal. 212a) studied poly water configurations. There are numerous other investigations of laser-excited Raman spectra, the discussion of which would demand a special review article 2i3b-f). 

Let us use some quotations on the importance of determining the geometry of molecules. The first one is from a book on the story of poly water by Felix Franks UO] ... 

Fig. 19.1. Infrared and Raman spectra of poly water, (a) Infrared spectrum of...

CI2, Bt2,12 and dihalogen compounds XX react with electron donors like amines or ethers to form complexes where the dihalogen molecules act as electron acceptors. The structure of some such complexes will be discussed in Section 18.6. Similarly the hydrogen halides HX react with electron donors to form hydrogen-bonded complexes, and the structures of some of them will be described in Section 18.7. The chapter ends with descriptions of the structures of the hydrogen-bonded H2O dimer in the gas phase, of solid ice and liquid water, and a brief account of the poly water episode. 

Was the poly water episode a scandal This author does not think so. A difficult experiment had led to an unexpected result that was be reproduced in other laboratories. The original interpretation was unorthodox, but not impossible. A sufficient number of scientists accepted the challenge, and the error was rectified in less than a dozen years. 

For a fuller account of the poly water affair see F. Franks, Polywater, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1981. 

Scientific and popular furor followed. Apparently, someone recalled Vonnegut s novel, and the worry arose and quickly escalated into a panic. On September 22nd, 1969, The New York Times published an article in this respect, expressing the concern that if polywater were to come in contact with ordinary water, the plain water on our planet would all turn into a viscous polymer too Scientists were urged to treat polywater as a deadly substance until it was shown definitively to be safe—even though no one could make more than a drop of poly water at a time, and even though no one had ever demonstrated that poly water had any effect on plain water. 

In the end, poly water samples were subjected to much closer scrutiny and were all shown to contain some contamination with impurities of substances suspended in ordinary water. When the original experiments were repeated with extraordinary care given to cleaning the apparatus, pol5iwater could no longer be produced By 1972, most of the world s scientists considered the case closed, and by 1973, even Deryagin conceded that polywater did not exist. 

Sason I constructed initially a course, which was basically storytelling about chemists and alchemists, such as the story of the pathological science of poly water. [2] I barely touched any chemistry... 

Experiments trying to move matter both ways (from the bulk to the condensate and back) were not successful, suggesting that poly water and water are not two phases of the same substance in equilibrium. For the scientific details of the polywater episode and its relevance for the discussion on entity realism see [van Brakel, 1993). 

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