Magnetic and Electric Effects on Water
Water, being dipolar, can be partly aligned by an electric field
and this may be easily shown by the movement of a stream of water
by an electrostatic source .
Very high field strengths (5 x 109 V m-1)
are required to reorient water in ice such that freezing is inhibited
, with lower fields (105 V m-1) encouraging ice formation in supercooled water by weakening the hydrogen bonding. Even partial alignment
of the water molecules with the electric field will cause pre-existing
hydrogen bonding to become bent or broken. The balance between hydrogen
bonding and van der Waals attractions is thus biased towards van
der Waals attractions giving rise to less cyclic hydrogen bonded
clustering.
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Water is diamagnetic and may be levitated in very high magnetic
fields (10 T, compare Earth's magnetic field 30 μT)
. Lower, but still powerful, magnetic
fields (0.2 T) have been shown, in simulations, to increase
the number of monomer water molecules
but, rather surprisingly, they increase the tetrahedrality at the same time. They may also assist clathrate formation
. The increase
in refractive index with magnetic field has been attributed
to increased hydrogen bond strength .
Weak magnetic fields (15 mT) have also been shown to increase the evaporation rate . These effects are consistent with the magnetic fields weakening
the van der Waals bonding between the water moleculesa and the water molecules being more tightly bound, due to the
magnetic field reducing the thermal motion of the inherent
charges by generating dampening forces .
Due to the fine balance between
the conflicting hydrogen bonding and non-bonded interactions
in water clusters, any such weakening of the van der Waals
attraction leads to a further strengthening of the hydrogen
bonding and greater cyclic hydrogen bonded clustering. This
effect of the magnetic field on the hydrogen bonding has been
further supported by the rise in the melting point of H2O
(5.6 mK at 6 T) and D2O (21.8 mK at 6 T)
and the 3°C lowering of the sol-gel transition (at 0.3 T) in methylcellulose , both indicating a weakening
of the van der Waals bonding of the water molecules within a magnetic field. Far greater effects on contact
angle and Raman bands have been shown to occur using strong
magnetic fields (6 T) when the water contains dissolved oxygen
(but not without the paramagnetic oxygen), indicating effects due to greater
clathrate-type water formation .
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Thus it appears that electric and magnetic fields have opposite
effects on water clustering. Static magnetic effects have
been shown to cause an increase in the ordered structure of
water formed around hydrophobic molecules and colloids ,
as shown by the increase in fluorescence of dissolved probes
. This reinforces
the view that it is the movement through a magnetic field,
and it associated electromagnetic effect, that is important
for disrupting the hydrogen bonding. Such fields can also
increase the evaporation rate of water and the dissolution
rate of oxygen (due to its paramagnetic nature) but cannot, despite claims by certain expensive
water preparations, increase the amount of oxygen dissolved
in water above its established, and rather low, equilibrium
concentration .
Magnetic fields can also increase proton spin relaxation ,
which may speed up some reactions dependent on proton transfer.
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Belief in whether or not magnetic or electromagnetic fields can
have any more permanent effect on water, and solutions, depends
on the presence of a working hypothesis for their mode of action
(see also homeopathy). Such hypotheses
are emerging. On a cautionary note however, many studies either
do not treat results with proper statistical rigor or do not use
relevant 'untreated' material for comparison.
Unstructured water with fewer hydrogen bonds is a more reactive
environment ,
as exemplified by the enhanced reactivity of supercritical
water.b An
open, more hydrogen-bonded network structure slows reactions
due to its increased viscosity, reduced diffusivities and
the less active participation of water molecules. Any factors
that reduce hydrogen bonding and hydrogen bond strength, such
as electric fields, should encourage reactivity. Water clusters
(even with random arrangements) have equal hydrogen
bonding in all directions. As such, electric or electromagnetic
fields that attempt to reorient the water molecules should
necessitate the breakage of some hydrogen bonds; for example, electric fields have been reported to halve the mean water
cluster size as measured by 17O-NMR
(see also 'declustered' water) and increase reaction rates , hydration and solubility.
Electromagnetic radiation (for example, microwave) has been
shown to exert its effect primarily through the electrical
rather than magnetic effect .
The increased hydration ability of water in electromagnetic
fields has been shown by the dissociation of an enzyme
dimer (electric eel acetylcholinesterase), leading to gel
formation, due to the microwave radiation from a mobile phone
. The resultant
aqueous restructuring caused by such processes may be kinetically
stable.
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Pure water is a poor conductor of
electricity but is not a perfect insulator as it always contains ions due to self-ionization. Passage of an electric current causes electrolysis,f producing O2 at the anode and H2 at
the cathode. At metallic electrodes, even quite low voltages
can have impressive effects on the orientation of the water
molecules and the positioning of ions .c A negative potential of -0.23 V orients water hydrogen atoms
towards the electrode whereas +0.52 V reverses this; both
causing some hydrogen bond breakage and localized density
increase.d Ions
are attracted or repelled dependent on their charge. Similar
orientations may take place at the surface of minerals containing
alternating positive and negative charges such that a solid
(static and non-exchangeable) water layer has been reported
at the surface of highly polar metal oxides, (e.g. TiO2) and an ambient temperature single layer ice
(with all the donor hydrogen bonds oriented towards each other
or the silica surface oxygen atoms) is found, using modeling,
on the surface of hydrophilic fully hydroxylated silica (
called ice tesselation), which may explain the many layers
of structured water found at the surfaces of complex silicates.
Thus, a high-voltage electric field (333 kV m-1)
has been shown to raise the water
activity in bread dough, so ensuring a more efficient
hydration of the gluten
and treatment of water with magnetic fields of about one Tesla
increases the strength of mortar due to its greater hydration
. Rather
unexpectedly, such electric fields (~1 MV m-1)
apparently increase water's surface tension by about 2% .e High interfacial fields (E > 109 V m-1)
at electrode (or charged) surfaces can cause a phase transition
with an ordered layering of water at high densities similar
to ice X . Depending on the value of the field, the restriction pressures may cause melting or freezing as corresponding to the normal phase behavior . High
fields (E ~109 V m-1) might also be
found (perhaps surprisingly) at the surface of hydrophilic
molecules where caused by the partial charges on the atoms
and the small distances between the surface and first hydration
layer. High fields affect hydrogen bonding in an anisotropic manner, hydrogen bonds being strengthened
along the field but weakened orthogonal to the field .
At low fields, however, both translational and rotational
motions may be reduced. Electric fields are expected to increase the differences in the properties between the ortho and para forms of water . Electric fields also lower the dielectric
constant of the water ,
due to the resultant partial or complete destruction of the
hydrogen-bonded network. Consequentially, the solubility properties
of the water will change in the presence of such fields and
may result in the concentration of dissolved gases and hydrophobic
molecules at surfaces followed by reaction (for example, due to reactive singlet oxygen (1O2)
or free radical formation such as OH·) or phase changes (for example, formation of flattish surface nanocavities, termed nanobubbles).
It is also possible that these processes may result in the production of low concentrations of hydrogen peroxide in a similar manner to mechanical vibrations , see equations]. Such changes can clearly result in effects lasting for a considerable
time, giving rise to claims for 'memory' effects. One of the
curious facts, concerning reports of the effects of magnets
and electromagnetic radiation on the properties of water,
is the long lifetime these effects seem to have . This
should not be so surprising, however, as it can take several
days for the effects, of the addition of salts to water, to
finally stop oscillating and several months where such solutions are still changing .
Also, there is evidence that water structuring in still deaerated
pure water increases over a period of a day or two , changes in dilute ethanol solution over a period of days , and in homeopathic preparations over hundreds of days ,
clathrates may persist metastably in water ,
water restructuring after infrared radiation persists for
more than a day ,
and water photoluminescence (possibly due to impurities at
gas/liquid interfaces )
changes over a period of days .
Permanent changes to the structure of water are reported following
exposure to resonant RLC (resistance inductance capacitance)
circuits .
The effects, however, are small and poorly reproducible and,
as with some of the other studies mentioned here, should be
viewed with the possibility that pathological
science is at work.
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In addition to the breakage of hydrogen bonds electromagnetic
fields may perturb in the gas/liquid interface and produce
reactive oxygen species .
Changes in hydrogen bonding may effect carbon dioxide hydration
resulting in pH changes. Thus the role of dissolved gas in
water chemistry is likely to be more important than commonly
realized ;
particularly as the formation of nanobubbles (that is, nanocavities) containing just a few hundred or less molecules of gas, the
stability of larger bubbles (~300 nm diameter) detected by
light scattering and nanobubble
coating of hydrophobic surfaces
have all been recently described. Reinforcement of this view
comes from the effect of magnetized water on ceramic manufacture
and out-gassing
experiments that apparently result in the loss of magnetic
and electromagnetic effects or photoluminescent effects
. Gas accumulating
at hydrophobic surfaces
promotes the hydrophobic effect and low-density water formation. The accumulated gas molecules
at such hydrophobic surfaces becomes supersaturating when
electromagnetic effects disrupt this surface low-density water.
An interesting (and possibly related) 'memory of water' phenomena
is the effect of water, previously exposed to weak electromagnetic
signals, on the distinctive patterns and handedness of colonies
of certain bacteria .
Here, the water retains the effect for at least 20 minutes
after exposure to the field.
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Recently, there has been some debate over 'digital
biology'; a proposal from Jacques Benveniste (leader of the
team that produced the controversial
homeopathy paper) that 'specific molecular signals in the audio
range' (hypothetically the 'beat' frequencies of water's infrared
vibrations) may be heard, collected, transmitted (for example, by phone) and amplified to similarly affect other water molecules
at a receiver . This
unlikely idea is generally thought highly implausible. The data
has, however, reportedly been independently confirmed but this has
not yet been published (which may be rather problematic in the present
skeptical climate). Note that experimental confirmation of the phenomenon
may not necessarily confirm the proposed mechanism. Rather interestingly,
however, electromagnetic emission has been detected during the freezing
of supercooled water
due to negative charging of the solid surface at the interface caused
by surface ionization of water molecules followed by preferential
loss of hydrogen ions ;
a consequence, perhaps, of the Costa Ribeiro effect .
It is not unreasonable, therefore, that similar effects may occur
during changes in the structuring of liquid water. Also, it has
been reported that microwave frequencies can also give rise to signals
audible to radar operators .
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If electromagnetic effects do indeed influence
the degree of structuring in water , then it is clear that
they may have an effect on health. The biological effects
of microwaves, for example, have generally been analyzed in
terms of their very small heating effects. However, it should
be recognized that there might be significant non-thermal
effects (for example, )
due to the imposed re-orientation of water at the surfaces
of biomolecular structures such as membranes .
Similar effects on membranes have been proposed to occur due
to magnetic and electric fields .
Additionally as low-frequency, low level alternating electric
fields have been found to affect the electrical conductivity
of pure water ,
the effects of living near power cables and microwave towers
should, perhaps, not be thought harmless just because no theory
for harm has been formally recognized. Even variations in
the geomagnetic field may have some long-term exposure effects.
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Footnotes
a This effect has been shown
in weakly bound van der Waals complexes as due to the coupling between
magnetic-field induced energy levels (Zeeman levels) of the molecular
orbitals . [Back]
b Note that this may not extend to conditions
of much-reduced hydrogen bonding. At close to critical and supercritical
conditions, water molecules may become less reactive than expected
with temperature increase due to the loss of hydrogen bonding causing
consequential loss of the 'cage' effect, which encourages reactions
within the 'cage', and reduced polarization activation. [Back]
c Note that the electric field strength
across the surface monolayer of water molecules may be of the order
of 1010 V m-1 for just a few volts applied
potential. [Back]
d The binding of water molecules to
uncharged metal surfaces depends on the nature of the metal.
On a platinum Pt(111) surface, half the water molecules form
Pt····OH2 links with
the other half forming Pt····H-OH
bonds due to the balance between Pt····H
hydrogen bond formation and H-O bond weakening. Other metal
surfaces may prefer one or the other water orientation or
cause partial dissociation of the protons dependent on their
proton affinity .
[Back]
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e Electric and magnetic fields
lower the surface tensions of natural
water by up to 8% .
However, it has been noted elewhere that surface tension measurements
are too sensitive to impurities to provide reliable data .
[Back]
f Using very high voltages with high power (~100 kV, >1000 A), an electric discharge through the water may result giving a plasma channel (>10,000 K) with a wide emission sprectrum from vacuum ultraviolet to infrared . Such a system produces significant quantities of OH· radicals, singlet oxygen (1O2), peroxide (H2O2) and ozone (O3). [Back]
