Molecular Cluster Distribution in Sea Water Near the Wall: Antifouling Aspect

It was investigated how the “wall effect” influences the cluster distribution in water and 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution being in a glass cylinder. The cluster distribution in a mass assemble up to 2.2 million Dalton was determined in dependence on the distance to the wall at normal atmospheric pressure. The average cluster mass, the rate of collapsed and skeletal clusters and the number of cluster kinds depended on the distance to the wall and on stirring methods. In different liquid’s layers and at different distances to the wall, there were registered newly appearing clusters as well as disappearing ones especially, solvated clusters of ion pairs (SCIPs). Under non-stirring conditions, the base water cluster (H2O)12 and (NaCl·40H2O)2 are the most sensitive to the wall distance. Other SCIPs like dimers, tetramers and hexamers remain stable at stirring in the vessel center (12 rad/s) and don’t react to wall approaching however at cylinder rotation (8.9 rad/s) these SCIPs are sensitive to the wall. The wall nature, the distance to the wall and the constant magnetic field were concluded to influence the cluster distribution differently. Cluster properties were assumed to be applied by sea water living organisms for their navigation.