Collective dynamics of supercritical water Original Research Article

Inelastic X-ray scattering experiments on sub- and supercritical water were performed to investigate collective dynamics of this unique solvent. Analysis within a generalized Langevin formalism shows that the positive dispersion of the sound velocity, as compared to the hydrodynamic value, first decreases (1.0<ρ<0.8 g cm−3) at all measured momentum transfers (1.3–10.7 nm−1), and then increases (0.7<ρ<0.26 g cm−3) again only at higher momentum transfers. We suggest the initial decrease is due to approaching the percolation limit in the number of hydrogen bonds, and the subsequent increase is due to the formation of rigid dimers in sub- and supercritical water.