Origin of Clusters: IV. Low Temperature Fast-Atom Bombardment Cluster Patterns Point to the Possible Existence of NaCl Crystalline Hydrates Incorporating Heavy Water

Abstract

Low temperature fast-atom bombardment study of frozen D₂O–NaCl solutions gave results similar to those obtained earlier for the H₂O–NaCl system. Thus, sets of clusters (D₂O) _n •D⁺, (D₂O) _n •Na⁺, (D₂O) _n •NaCl•Na⁺, (NaCl) _m •Na⁺ with a characteristic distribution depending on the composition of the sample and phase transitions on its thawing were recorded. A typical cluster pattern, attributed in the case of the H₂O–NaCl system to a phase of a crystalline hydrate NaCl•2H₂O, was observed for the D₂O–NaCl system as well. At the same time, recently available reference data on the solubility of NaCl do not contain a specification for the formation of a crystalline hydrate on cooling of NaCl solution in D₂O. Considering the present mass spectrometry data, the possibility of incorporation of heavy water into NaCl crystalline hydrates is discussed.