{"id":45581,"date":"2018-06-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pcb.ub.edu\/water-can-be-dead-electrically-speaking\/"},"modified":"2020-11-18T14:48:22","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T13:48:22","slug":"water-can-be-dead-electrically-speaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcb.ub.edu\/en\/water-can-be-dead-electrically-speaking\/","title":{"rendered":"Water can be dead, electrically speaking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Water is one of the most fascinating substances on Earth. \u00a0At the heart of its many unusual properties is its high polarizability \u2013 that is, its strong response to an applied electric field. Now, though, researchers have found that water that\u2019s only a few molecules thick \u2013 like the water that covers every surface around us \u2013 behaves very differently to normal, \u2018bulk\u2019 water. Publishing in\u00a0Science, they reveal that when in thin layers, water loses its polarizability, becoming electrically \u2018dead\u2019.<\/p>\n

Using some new techniques, the researchers were able to measure, for the first time ever, the dielectric properties of water that is only a few molecules thick \u2013 and demonstrated that these atomically thin layers of water near solid surfaces do not respond to an electric field. The finding has very important implications for the understanding of many phenomena where water is involved, including all living things.<\/p>\n

For many decades scientists had tried without success to figure out how water behaves on a microscopic scale in the immediate vicinity of other substances, solid surfaces and macromolecules. \u201cA layer of water only a few atoms thick covers every surface,\u201d says lead author Dr. Fumagalli. \u201cWe can\u2019t see it, but it is there, and its nature has been much debated for almost a century.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until now, this surface water was presumed to behave differently from normal water, which is famous for its anomalously high dielectric constant. Such water was predicted to exhibit a reduced electric response, but by how much remained unknown; and until now, it was a controversial issue in modern physical chemistry.<\/p>\n

To resolve the debate, the collaborators had to develop new tools to controllably measure the dielectric constant on a very small scale.To study the properties of this water, one needs to get rid from the effects of the bulk water that dominates its overall behavior,\u201d says Prof. Gomila, who leads IBEC\u2019s Nanoscale bioelectrical characterization group.<\/p>\n

To achieve this, the scientists created special channels that were only several angstroms in size and which accommodated only a few layers of water, and then introduced a technique capable of probing water\u2019s dielectric constant inside these nanochannels.<\/p>\n

To their astonishment, the researchers found that the electric response of the confined water is not only suppressed but completely absent. In other words, the water inside nanochannels was electrically \u2018dead\u2019, with its dipoles immobilized and unable to screen an external field. This is in contrast to bulk water, whose molecules easily align along an electric field. The thickness of the dead layer was found to be less than one nanometer \u2013 that is, two to three molecules thick.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis anomaly is not just an academic curiosity, but has clear implications for many fields, and for the life sciences in particular,\u201d says Prof. Andre Geim, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010. \u201cElectric interactions with water molecules play an important role in shaping biological molecules such as proteins, so our results can help to improve the understanding of the role of water in technological processes, and why it is so crucial for life.\u201d
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u25baReference article:<\/strong>\u00a0L. Fumagalli, A. Esfandiar, R. Fabregas, S. Hu, P. Ares, A. Janardanan, Q. Yang, B. Radha, T. Taniguchi, K. Watanabe, G. Gomila, K. S. Novoselov, A. K. Geim (2018).”Anomalously low dielectric constant of confined water”.<\/a>\u00a0Science,\u00a022 Jun 2018:\u00a0Vol. 360, Issue 6395, pp. 1339-1342.\u00a0DOI: 10.1126\/science.aat4191\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u25ba More information on IBEC website [+]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A research led by Dr. Laura Fumagalli and Nobel Laureate Prof. Andre Geim from the National Graphene Institute at the University of Manchester, reveals that water water that covers every surface around us behaves very differently to normal water. The study, published today in Science, has involved IBEC<\/a> group leader Gabriel Gomila at the Barcelona Science Park, as well as scientists from Japan\u2019s National Institute for Materials Science.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51610,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWater can be dead, electrically speaking - Parc Cient\u00edfic de Barcelona<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcb.ub.edu\/en\/water-can-be-dead-electrically-speaking\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Water can be dead, electrically speaking - Parc Cient\u00edfic de Barcelona\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A research led by Dr. Laura Fumagalli and Nobel Laureate Prof. Andre Geim from the National Graphene Institute at the University of Manchester, reveals that water water that covers every surface around us behaves very differently to normal water. The study, published today in Science, has involved IBEC group leader Gabriel Gomila at the Barcelona Science Park, as well as scientists from Japan\u2019s National Institute for Materials Science.\u00a0 \u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pcb.ub.edu\/en\/water-can-be-dead-electrically-speaking\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Parc Cient\u00edfic de Barcelona\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-06-21T23:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-18T13:48:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pcb.ub.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/16057059625fb520ea241a6.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"389\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"adminpcb\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"adminpcb\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcb.ub.edu\\\/en\\\/water-can-be-dead-electrically-speaking\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcb.ub.edu\\\/en\\\/water-can-be-dead-electrically-speaking\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"adminpcb\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcb.ub.edu\\\/es\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d13cab05cd0a75b17fddca8496481021\"},\"headline\":\"Water can be dead, electrically speaking\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-21T23:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-18T13:48:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcb.ub.edu\\\/en\\\/water-can-be-dead-electrically-speaking\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":568,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcb.ub.edu\\\/en\\\/water-can-be-dead-electrically-speaking\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcb.ub.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/06\\\/16057059625fb520ea241a6.jpeg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcb.ub.edu\\\/en\\\/water-can-be-dead-electrically-speaking\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pcb.ub.edu\\\/en\\\/water-can-be-dead-electrically-speaking\\\/\",\"name\":\"Water can be dead, electrically speaking - 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