Influence of Magnetic Field on Water and Aqueous Solutions

Abstract

AbstractInfluences of an applied magnetic field and an applied field gradient are explored in pure water and in aqueous solutions. Effects such as diamagnetic levitation require a large magnetic field gradient force, and very large inhomogeneous fields. The weak effects on surface tension are best observed in compensated zero-susceptibility solutions of paramagnetic ions. Much larger effects of magnetic field on evaporation rate, in the range 10–100% may be of either sign. They are related to behaviour of the ortho and para nuclear isomers of water as quasi-independent gasses in the vapor, which are released from the surface of evaporating water in a ratio that is far from the expected equilibrium 3:1 triplet/singlet ratio in the ambient atmosphere. For pure water the ratio is found to be 39:61 The equilibrium is slow to be established by intermolecular collisions, but the ratio can be changed rapidly in the vapor phase, for example by a magnetic field gradient due to Larmour precession, which in turn alters the evaporation rate. The field is most effective in when the vapor is confined in a sheltered space such as a microchannel.