Application of nmr spectroscopy to determine the thermodynamic characteristics of water bound to OX-50 nanosilica

Abstract

We have used low-temperature 1H NMR spectroscopy to determine the thermodynamic characteristics of water bound to OX-50 nanosilica (SBET ≈ 50 m2/g) in different media: aqueous, air, chloroform medium, and gaseous methane. We demonstrate the difference between the hydration parameters of silica OX-50 on going from an aqueous suspension to a hydrated powder. We present the water cluster size distributions in the studied systems, calculated from the Gibbs–Thomson equation. We found that the average water cluster size in suspension is considerably larger than the cluster sizes in hydrated powders.