Metastable states of the fractal-cluster structure of alcohol-containing aqueous solutions

The paper presents the results of the study of fractal-cluster structures formed in the near-surface layer of alcohol-containing aqueous solutions. Water-ethanol mixture when changing the concentration of alcohol in water enters a new phase with a more dense packing of fluctuating structures. Molecules of alcohol, having a larger size than water molecules, when embedded in the structure of water, significantly violate it, as a result of which the structure of the system and its properties change. To visualize these structures in the surface layer of alcohol-containing aqueous solutions, the laser interferometry method was used in the work . It was found that in the range of average concentrations of alcohol in an aqueous solution, in spite of some stabilization of the structure of the system, the solutions in it have a substantial heterogeneity in the form of changing fractal-cluster structures. On the basis of the conducted studies, possible mechanisms for the transition of fractal-cluster water structures in the interaction with ethanol into spatial clathrates are shown.