Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 21, 2025
Fabrication of Superhydrophobic Metal Surfaces for Anti-Icing Applications
Published on: August 15, 2018
Possible Anomaly in the Surface Tension of Supercooled Water: New Experiments at Extreme Supercooling down to
Václav Vinš1, Jiří Hykl1, Jan Hrubý1
1Institute of Thermomechanics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Dolejškova 5, Prague 8, 182 00 Czech Republic.
Abstract:
The surface tension of water is suspected to show a substantial increase at low temperatures, which is considered to be one of the many anomalies of water. The second inflection point (SIP) anomaly, originally claimed to be at around -8 °C, was experimentally refuted down to -25 °C by Hrubý et al. (J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2014, 5, 425-428). Recent molecular simulations predict the SIP anomaly near or even below the homogeneous freezing limit of around -38 °C. To contribute to an ongoing discussion about the SIP anomaly, new experiments focused on extreme levels of supercooling were carried out in this study. Unique experimental data down to -31.4 °C were collected using two measuring techniques based on the capillary rise method. A significant deviation from the extrapolated IAPWS formulation R1-76(2014) for surface tension of ordinary water was detected below -20 °C. Contrary to previous data, new experiments provide room for an anomaly in the course of surface tension in the deeply supercooled region.
Related Concept Videos
03:12Freezing Point Depression and Boiling Point Elevation
The boiling point of a liquid is the temperature at which its vapor pressure is equal to ambient atmospheric pressure. Since the vapor pressure of a solution is lowered due to the presence of nonvolatile solutes, it stands to reason that the solution’s boiling point will subsequently be increased. Vapor pressure increases with temperature, and so a solution will require a higher temperature than will pure solvent to achieve any given vapor pressure, including one...
01:24Superconductor
01:22Surface Tension of Fluid
Surface tension varies...
02:57Surface Tension, Capillary Action, and Viscosity
The various IMFs between identical molecules of a substance are examples of cohesive forces. The molecules within a liquid are surrounded by other molecules and are attracted equally in all directions by the cohesive forces within the liquid. However, the molecules on the surface of a liquid are attracted only by about one-half as many molecules. Because of the unbalanced molecular attractions on the surface molecules, liquids contract to form a shape that minimizes the number...
01:23States of Water
Water freezes when the intermolecular forces are greater than the kinetic energy. Unlike most other substances, water is less dense in its solid state than in its liquid state. This is because each water molecule can form...
01:16Surface Tension and Surface Energy
Consider a beaker filled with liquid. The bulk molecules in the liquid experience equal attractive forces on all sides with the surrounding molecules. However, the surface molecules experience a net attractive force downward due to the bulk molecules. The surface of the liquid behaves like a stretched membrane,...