Spins doctor water’s reactivity

By Philip Ball2018-06-01T13:31:00

Observation of different reactivities of para and ortho water towards trapped diazenylium ions

Source: © Willitsch et al. Nature Communications, 2018.

Ultracold experiments reveal water isomers have different reaction rates

It may be the most familiar molecule in chemistry, but H₂O is far from simple. Now researchers in Switzerland and Germany have added to water’s complexity by proving that its spin isomers react at different rates.