A radically new suggestion about the electrodynamics of water: Can the pH index and the Debye relaxation be of a common origin?

¹ A.M. Prokhorov General Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences - 119991 Moscow, Russia
² Dresden High Magnetic Field Laboratory, HZ Dresden-Rossendorf - 01314 Dresden, Germany

^(a) vartemo@bk.ru

Received: 3 February 2014
Accepted: 7 May 2014

Abstract

The structure of pure water is commonly viewed as an openwork matrix of hydrogen-bonded H₂O molecules with a Debye relaxation dynamics. The matrix is filled with free ions of low concentration , which makes water a weak electrolyte with . Traditionally, the Debye relaxation is considered having no relevance to the dc water conductivity (or the pH index): while the Debye relaxation is caused by the dynamics of intact H₂O molecules, the dc conductivity, in contrast, is due to self-dissociation of H₂O into H₃O⁺ and OH⁻ ions. Here, we consider a microscopic mechanism, which could unify the Debye and the dc dynamics, namely the Brownian-like motion of strongly interacting ions. The model comprehensively describes the low-energy electrodynamics of water (up to ) giving however an unexpected outcome: water behaves as if it had far more free ions than the standard model assumes. High concentration of counter charges results in a polarization structure of water. We recognize full well that such a radical model is contrary to many years of research on the dynamics, thermodynamics, and dielectric properties of water; but the results seem logically consistent and may prove stimulating.