A Study on the Changes in Physical Properties of Distilled Water Put In Contact with Porous Hydrophilic Materials: Experimental Evidence on Neapolitan Yellow Tuff
Vittorio Elia1, Elena Napoli1, Roberto Germano*2, Daniele Naviglio3, Martina Ciaravolo1, Giovanni Dal Poggetto4, Domenico Caputo3, Rosario Oliva1, Tamar A. Yinnon5,6
1 Department of Chemical Sciences, University ‘‘Federico II’’, Complesso Universitario di Monte Sant’Angelo, Via Cintia, I-80126 Napoli, Italy
2 PROMETE Srl, CNR Spin off, P.le V. Tecchio, 45 – 80125 Napoli, Italy
3Department of Chemical, Material and Industrial Production Engineering, University “Federico II”, P.le V. Tecchio, 80 80125 Napoli, Italy
4 ECORICERCHE Srl, Via Principi Normanni 81043 Capua (CE), Italy
5 K. Kalia, D.N. Kikar Jordan, 90666, Israel.
6 Reedmace Lake, Enot Tsukim Nature Reserve at Kalia, Israel.
*Corresponding author e-mail: germano@promete.it
Published: July 24, 2022
Abstract
A series of experimental measurements were performed on Milli-Q water samples in which a piece of Neapolitan Yellow Tuff (NYT) was immersed. As time changes, the liquid acquires new physicochemical properties that make it experimentally very different from the starting liquid. In particular, the values of a large number of physicochemical parameters change: electrical conductivity, pH, density, and heat of mixing with acids and bases. The measurements of Thermogravimetry (TGA), Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA), and the infrared absorbance spectra performed on the solid (Xerosydryle) obtained by lyophilization, show unusual but experimentally certain behaviors. The freeze-drying process of these liquids produces weight quantities of solid. The liquids obtained and on which the various experiments were carried out were decanted and filtered to eliminate Tuff particles that inexorably detach from the piece under examination. This extraordinary new phenomenology induced by an inorganic system, such as Tuff, has close similarities and some peculiarities with respect to the phenomenology that occurs by perturbing the water with organic, natural, or synthetic insoluble polymers.