Abstract
According to the latest results obtained by small-angle X-ray scattering and X-ray spectroscopy, it was suggested that water on a nanometer scale represents a fluctuating mixture of clusters with tetrahedral structure and a subphase with partially broken hydrogen bonds, whereas the nuclear configuration of the H2O molecule corresponds to single tetrahedral coordination. The basic reason of such structural partition is not clear until now. Here we show that it can be associated with existence of two nuclear H2O spin isomers that have different probability to be in one or the other subphase. The para molecule can transfer an excess of its rotational energy to the environment, up to complete stopping of rotation because its rotational quantum number J = 0 in the basic state. This property is favorable for formation of clusters with closed H-bonds. Ortho molecules with odd-numbered J states lack this property and thus should be predominantly present in the locations with impaired bonds.
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Original Russian Text © S.D. Zakharov, 2013, published in Biofizika, 2013, Vol. 58, No. 5, pp. 904–909.
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Zakharov, S.D. Ortho/para spin-isomers of H2O molecules as a factor responsible for formation of two structural motifs in water. BIOPHYSICS 58, 718–722 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0006350913050205
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0006350913050205