Structure at the Free Surface of Water and Aqueous Electrolyte Solutions

Abstract During the past 20 years or so one of the regions of conspicuous growth in the field of physical chemistry has been the study of the structure and behaviour of water and aqueous solutions. There are practical reasons, for example technical and biological, for this interest, but it is also true that the complexity of water as a liquid provides its own motive to the rcsearch worker. It is unlikely that we would spend so much time in the study of water if it were as simple a liquid as Argon. However, strange though the behaviour of liquid water is, it is probably not as strange as it has sometimes been thought to be. The thermal “anomalies” of water and the abnormal “Poly-water” Seem rather likely to fade out of the scientific scene, as have other stimulating but nonviable scientific myths.