Temperature Coefficient of the Refractive Index of H2O and D2O and Proposed Models of Water Structure

Abstract

Abstract The temperature coefficient of the refractive index, (∂n/∂T)p, has been measured for deuterium oxide. The observed values are considered together with those previously obtained for water. The experimental data cannot be explained with the best known models of molecular polarizability, at least in the approximation generally used in these models. Therfore they are discussed on the basis of a different approximation, suggested by a well-known structural model of liquid water. It is shown that the experimental results are very well explained, in a wide range of temperature, with the hypothesis of the existence of "structural voids".