Can Water Polymerize ? An Inquiry into the Possible Existence of Strong Bonds between Water Molecules

Abstract

BY condensing water vapour into glass and quartz capillaries at reduced pressures, several groups^1–4 have obtained small amounts of a substance which seems to contain only the constituents of water. It displays physical properties which differ markedly from those of water and so has been called “anomalous water”. Suggestions that this substance is in fact an oligomer⁵ or polymer⁴ have appeared since the publication of the original observations, and several hypothetical structures^3–6 have been put forward. The stability of “anomalous water” is attributed to the existence of a heretofore unobserved type of chemical bond between water molecules of the type O′HO″ (if the bond is asymmetric, the hydrogen atom is more closely bound to O′). The energy of the bond is an order of magnitude greater than that of currently recognized hydrogen bonds. My purpose here is to report on calculations which call into serious question the existence of the proposed strong OHO bond and, consequently, polymeric structures based on it.