Water = H2O???

A Water Molecule's Chemical Formula is Really Not H2O

A water molecule's chemical formula is really not H2O, at least from the perspective of neutrons and electrons interacting with the molecule for only attoseconds (1 attosecond=10-18 seconds). According to new and recent experiments, neutrons and electrons colliding with water for just attoseconds will see a ratio of hydrogen to oxygen of roughly 1.5 to 1, so a more accurate formula for water under these circumstances would be H1.5O.

According to the experimenters (Aris Chatzidimitriou-Dreismann, Technical University-Berlin, dreismann@chem.TU-Berlin.de, 011-49-30-314-22692), this "opening of the attosecond time window" may be revealing dramatic quantum effects that were once too short-lived to catch. Nonetheless, such effects may revise conventional textbook notions of water and other everyday molecules. Moreover, these experiments can provide new insights on chemical reactions at the 100-500 attosecond scale: the neutron and electron probes break apart the chemical bonds in molecules, as compared to laser-based attosecond studies, which have just ejected electrons from atoms at this point.

More interesting details at http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/2003/split/648-1.html