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{{Infobox theory
| name = Fourth phase of water
| type = Proposed phase of matter / interfacial water model
| author = [[Gerald Pollack]]
| keywords = exclusion zone, EZ water, structured water, H3O2, Nafion, charge separation, infrared, [[Water]]
| year = 2003 onward
}}

The '''fourth phase of water''' — also called '''EZ water''', '''exclusion-zone water''' or '''structured water''' — is the proposal, advanced by the University of Washington bioengineer [[Gerald Pollack]], that water possesses an ordered, gel-like phase distinct from solid, liquid and vapour. It forms next to '''hydrophilic''' (water-loving) surfaces, is negatively charged, and separates charge spontaneously — making it, in Pollack's account, a battery charged by ambient light.

An important distinction should be drawn at the outset. The underlying '''phenomenon is not in dispute''': the exclusion zone has been observed and replicated by at least ten independent laboratories. What is disputed is its '''interpretation''' — whether it constitutes a genuine fourth phase of water, as Pollack maintains, or ordinary interfacial water whose extent has been overstated, as most physical chemists hold.

==The exclusion zone==

The effect was first observed in Pollack's laboratory in '''2003''', next to polyvinyl alcohol gels, and reported on a much larger scale in '''2006''' next to '''Nafion''', a hydrophilic polymer. When microspheres or dissolved solutes are suspended in water against such a surface, they are pushed away from it, leaving a particle-free region — the '''exclusion zone'''.

What makes the observation striking is its '''size'''. Conventional surface chemistry allows interfacial ordering of a few molecular layers. The exclusion zones Pollack reports extend hundreds of micrometres — on the order of millions of molecular layers — far beyond anything the standard account anticipates.

==Structure and charge==

Pollack proposes that EZ water is built from stacked '''hexagonal sheets''' in which the hydrogens lie between the oxygens, giving a stoichiometry closer to '''H<sub>3</sub>O<sub>2</sub>''' than to H₂O. The resulting lattice carries a '''net negative charge'''.

The protons displaced in forming it accumulate in the ordinary bulk water just beyond the zone, which becomes correspondingly '''positively charged and more acidic''' — drops of several pH units have been measured. Water at an interface therefore separates charge spontaneously, without any external source of potential.

==Water as a battery charged by light==

Because the two regions carry opposite charge, the arrangement functions as a battery. An electrode placed in the exclusion zone and another in the bulk water beyond yield a measurable current, which Pollack's laboratory has used to do work. The separation persists rather than immediately discharging, because the bulky hydronium ions cannot penetrate the dense H₃O₂ network.

The energy that builds and maintains the zone, on this account, is '''radiant''': visible and especially '''infrared''' light drive EZ growth in a strongly wavelength-dependent manner, with infrared the most effective. Since infrared is radiated by every warm body, water in this picture is continuously absorbing ambient radiant energy and storing it as separated charge. Pollack is explicit that this involves no violation of thermodynamics — the water is a '''transducer''' of light, not a source of energy.

==Implications==

Pollack came to water through cell physiology, and the fourth phase is central to his argument — set out in ''Cells, Gels and the Engines of Life'' — that a cell is better understood as a '''gel''' of proteins and structured water than as a membrane-bounded bag of ordinary solution run by pumps and channels. On that view muscle contraction, cell division, secretion, nerve conduction and the resting potential follow from phase transitions of the gel rather than from dedicated molecular machinery.

He has extended the model to the attraction observed between like-charged particles in solution, the cohesion of water in plant xylem, cloud-droplet formation, the flow of blood through capillaries, and questions of human health.

==Reception==

Mainstream physical chemistry does not accept that the exclusion zone constitutes a new phase. The principal objections are that the effect has been demonstrated chiefly at boundaries with particular materials such as Nafion, making it '''interfacial''' water with unusual properties rather than a phase of the liquid itself; that quantum-chemical simulations do not reproduce a structure with hydrogens sitting between oxygens; and that no evident thermodynamic driving force exists to sustain ordering over such distances. A critical review of the experimental findings and competing theories was published in 2020.

Proponents reply that the exclusion zone is robustly replicated and demands ''some'' explanation; that its scale is orders of magnitude beyond what conventional interfacial chemistry predicts, so appealing to that chemistry does not dispose of it; and that the measured charge separation and light dependence are positive findings, not artefacts, whatever the correct structural account turns out to be.

==On this wiki==

The fourth phase is documented here through [[Gerald Pollack|Pollack's]] own papers, including ''[[Batteries Made from Water]]'' (2012), ''[[The Secret Life of Water: E = H2O]]'' (2011) and ''[[Mechanism of Attraction between Like-charged Particles in Aqueous Solution]]'' (2009).

The work has been taken up with particular interest in the [[Electric Universe]] community, on the view that it demonstrates electrical structure and charge separation arising spontaneously in ordinary matter: Pollack presented "Electrically Structured Water" at the '''EU2013''' conference. He has also spoken in the [[John Chappell Natural Philosophy Society]] seminar series.

==See also==

* [[Gerald Pollack]]
* [[Electric Universe]]
* [[John Chappell Natural Philosophy Society]]
* [[:Category:Theory & Models|Category: Theory & Models]]

[[Category:Theory & Models|Fourth phase of water]]