Nature 305, 412 - 413 (29 September 1983); doi:10.1038/305412a0

The unexpectedly high solubility of water in cryogenic liquids

R. Rebiai^*, A. J. Rest^† & R. G. Scurlock^*

^*Institute of Cryogenics and ^† Department of Chemistry, University of Southampton, Southampton SO9 5NH, UK

The solubility of H₂O in cryogenic liquids, such as liquid nitrogen (LIN), liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid methane, would be expected to be extremely low^1,2. Recent work using gravimetric methods suggested that the solubility of H₂O in liquid nitrogen could be as high as 10 p.p.m. or 10^-5 mole fraction³. This is many orders of magnitude greater than that expected, which is 10^-16 to 10^-18 mole fraction (B. Jarosz, E. Szcepaniec-Cieciak and Z. Wojtaszek, personal communication). We confirm here the unexpectedly high solubility of H₂O in LIN (10.010^-6 mole fraction), LOX (10.110^-6 mole fraction) and liquid methane (6010^-6 mole fraction) at their respective normal boiling points by using Fourier transform IR spectroscopy. We have also eliminated the possibilities of experimental artefacts via parallel experiments with D₂O.

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