A New Interpretation of Anomalous Properties of Water Based on Stillinger's Postulate

Abstract

An attempt has been made to interpret the anomalous properties of supercooled water in a unified way by using Stillinger's postulate that the formation of bulky clathrate-like local structures is the main cause of the anomalous thermodynamic and transport properties exhibited by liquid water at low temperatures. Comparison of the thermodynamic properties of liquid water, tellurium, and sulfur suggests the existence of a λ-like Cp transition in supercooled water below TH (but above TK). It is inferred that the diverging trends of various anomalous properties with lowering temperature are preserved up to high pressures (<200 MPa) due to premature ice crystallization which conceals the expected extrema (e.g., a λ-like Cp transition) of thermodynamic properties from observation.