A generally accepted model of the behaviour of water molecules has been disproved

Scientists at the University of Cambridge and the Institute for Polymer Research of the Max Planck Society in Germany have discovered that water molecules on the surface of a salt solution are organised differently than previously thought. The results of the study are published in the journal Nature Chemistry.

The experts studied how ions in solutions, called electrolytes, affect the distribution of water molecules at the boundary in contact with air. To do this, they applied a modified method of total vibration frequency generation (VSFG). Both cations (positively charged ions) and anions (negatively charged ions) located in the near-surface layer were found to contribute to the separation of the interface into two distinct layers.