Revealing water’s secrets: deuterium depleted water

Abstract

Abstract Background The anomalous properties of water have been of great interest for generations of scientists. However the impact of small amount of deuterium content which is always present in water has never been explored before. For the first time the fundamental properties of deuterium depleted (light) water at 4°C and 20°C are here presented. Results The obtained results show the important role of the deuterium in the properties of bulk water. At 4°C the lowest value of the kinematic viscosity (1.46 mm2/s) has been found for 96.5 ppm D/H ratio. The significant deviation in surface tension values has been observed in deuterium depleted water samples at the both temperature regimes. The experimental data provides direct evidence that density, surface tension and viscosity anomalies of water are caused by the presence of variable concentration of deuterium which leads to the formation of water clusters of different size and quantity. Conclusions The investigated properties of light water reveal the origin of the water anomalies. The new theoretical model of cluster formation with account of isotope effect is proposed.