Long-Range Order and Interactions of Macroscopic Objects in Polar Liquids

TL;DR

This paper presents a vector model for polar liquids that explains long-range, orientation-dependent interactions between macroscopic objects in water, highlighting the role of hydrogen bonding and dipole interactions in forming ordered networks.

Contribution

It introduces a phenomenological vector model capturing the interplay of hydrogen bonds and dipole interactions, explaining macroscopic interactions and phase transitions in polar liquids.

Findings

Long-range, orientationally dependent interactions emerge from the model.

Spontaneous polarization near hydrophobic boundaries leads to ordered hydrogen-bonded networks.

The model explains topological excitations and phase transitions in hydration water.

Abstract

We develop a phenomenological vector model of polar liquids capable to describe aqueous interactions of macroscopic bodies. It is shown that a strong, long-range and orientationally dependent interaction between macroscopic objects appears as a result of competition between short-range (hydrogen bonding) and the long-range dipole-dipole interactions of the solvent molecules. Spontaneous polarization of molecular dipoles next to a hydrophobic boundaries leads to formation of globally ordered network of hydrogen-bonded molecules with ferroelectric properties. The proposed vector model naturally describes topological excitations on the solute boundaries and can be used to explain the hydrogen bonds networks and order-disorder phase transitions in the hydration water layer.