Surface Tension of Supercooled Water: No Inflection Point down to -25 °C.

ABSTRACT

A dramatic increase in the surface tension of water with decreasing temperature in the supercooled liquid region has appeared as one of the many anomalies of water. This claimed anomaly characterized by the second inflection point at about +1.5 °C was observed in older surface tension data and was partially supported by some molecular simulations and theoretical considerations. In this study, two independent sets of experimental data for the surface tension of water in the temperature range between +33 and -25 °C are reported. The two data sets are mutually consistent, and they lie on a line smoothly extrapolating from the stable region. No second inflection point and no other anomalies in the course of the surface tension were observed. The new data lies very close to the extrapolated IAPWS correlation for the surface tension of ordinary water, which hence can be recommended for use, e.g., in atmospheric modeling.