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Mesodroplet Heterogeneity of Low-Concentration Aqueous Solutions of Polar Organic Compounds

  • Optical Diagnostic Methods of Droplet Phase of Aqueous Solutions
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Abstract

It is found experimentally that a mesoscopic droplet phase is formed in low-concentration aqueous solutions of various polar organic compounds, which are considered in the chemical literature as infinitely soluble in water. The content of dissolved organic molecules in droplets is much higher than in the ambient solution. The droplet size increases with temperature. Theory can explain the mesodroplet formation by the phase separation of a binary mixture affected by the dichotomous noise of twinkling hydrogen bonds between molecules of organic compound and water. The Snyder polarity index, which is used by chemists as a miscibility criterion for molecular compounds, depends in the model on the dipole moments of mixed molecules and the energy and number of hydrogen bonds. With this refinement, it can be used as an estimation criterion for the existence and intensity (i.e., the number of droplets per unit volume of organic aqueous solution) of mesodroplet separation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Vtoraya Baumanskaya ul. 5, Moscow, 105005, Russia

    N. F. Bunkin

  2. Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Vavilova 38, Moscow, 119991, Russia

    N. F. Bunkin, G. A. Lyakhov & A. V. Shkirin

  3. National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Kashirskoe sh. 31, Moscow, 115409, Russia

    A. V. Shkirin

  4. JSC “Production Association “Ural Optical and Mechanical Plant named after E.S. Yalamov” (UOMZ), ul. Vostochnaya 33B, Ekaterinburg, 620100, Russia

    P. S. Ignatiev

  5. Federal Research Center “Pushchino Scientific Center for Biological Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences”, Institute of Cell Biophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Institutskaya 3, Pushchino, Moscow oblast, 142290, Russia

    A. V. Kobelev, N. V. Penkov & E. E. Fesenko Jr.

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  1. N. F. Bunkin
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  2. G. A. Lyakhov
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  3. A. V. Shkirin
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  4. P. S. Ignatiev
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  5. A. V. Kobelev
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  6. N. V. Penkov
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  7. E. E. Fesenko Jr.
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to N. F. Bunkin, G. A. Lyakhov, A. V. Shkirin, P. S. Ignatiev, A. V. Kobelev, N. V. Penkov or E. E. Fesenko Jr..

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Bunkin, N.F., Lyakhov, G.A., Shkirin, A.V. et al. Mesodroplet Heterogeneity of Low-Concentration Aqueous Solutions of Polar Organic Compounds. Phys. Wave Phen. 27, 91–101 (2019). https://doi.org/10.3103/S1541308X19020031

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3103/S1541308X19020031

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