Review of the Low-Temperature Acoustic Properties of Water, Aqueous Solutions, Lipids, and Soft Biological Tissues

Existing data on the acoustic properties of low-temperature biological materials is limited and widely dispersed across fields. This makes it difficult to employ this information in the development of ultrasound applications in the medical field, such as cryosurgery and rewarming of cryopreserved tissues. In this review, the low-temperature acoustic properties of biological materials, and the measurement methods used to acquire them were collected from a range of scientific fields. The measurements were reviewed from the acoustic setup to thermal methodologies for samples preparation, temperature monitoring, and system insulation. The collected data contain the longitudinal and shear velocity, and attenuation coefficient of biological soft tissues and biologically relevant substances-water, aqueous solutions, and lipids-in the temperature range down to -50 °C and in the frequency range from 108 kHz to 25 MHz. The multiple reflection method (MRM) was found to be the preferred method for low-temperature samples, with a buffer rod inserted between the transducer and sample to avoid direct contact. Longitudinal velocity changes are observed through the phase transition zone, which is sharp in pure water, and occurs more slowly and at lower temperatures with added solutes. Lipids show longer transition zones with smaller sound velocity changes; with the longitudinal velocity changes observed during phase transition in tissues lying between these two extremes. More general conclusions on the shear velocity and attenuation coefficient at low-temperatures are restricted by the limited data. This review enhance knowledge guiding for further development of ultrasound applications in low-temperature biomedical fields, and may help to increase the precision and standardization of low-temperature acoustic property measurements.

Anomalies in bulk supercooled water at negative pressure

Water anomalies still defy explanation. In the supercooled liquid, many quantities, for example heat capacity and isothermal compressibility κT, show a large increase. The question arises if these quantities diverge, or if they go through a maximum. The answer is key to our understanding of water anomalies. However, it has remained elusive in experiments because crystallization always occurred before any extremum is reached. Here we report measurements of the sound velocity of water in a scarcely explored region of the phase diagram, where water is both supercooled and at negative pressure. We find several anomalies: maxima in the adiabatic compressibility and nonmonotonic density dependence of the sound velocity, in contrast with a standard extrapolation of the equation of state. This is reminiscent of the behavior of supercritical fluids. To support this interpretation, we have performed simulations with the 2005 revision of the transferable interaction potential with four points. Simulations and experiments are in near-quantitative agreement, suggesting the existence of a line of maxima in κT (LMκT). This LMκT could either be the thermodynamic consequence of the line of density maxima of water [Sastry S, Debenedetti PG, Sciortino F, Stanley HE (1996) Phys Rev E 53:6144-6154], or emanate from a critical point terminating a liquid-liquid transition [Sciortino F, Poole PH, Essmann U, Stanley HE (1997) Phys Rev E 55:727-737]. At positive pressure, the LMκT has escaped observation because it lies in the "no man's land" beyond the homogeneous crystallization line. We propose that the LMκT emerges from the no man's land at negative pressure.

Equation of state of water under negative pressure

We report on the simultaneous measurements of the speed of sound and the density in liquid water under negative pressure. Application of a focused acoustic wave to the bulk liquid is able to generate negative pressures before nucleation of the vapor phase occurs. A method for time-resolved Brillouin scattering is developed to measure the speed of sound during the passage of a 1 MHz ultrasonic wave. This is coupled with a fiber optic probe hydrophone which allows the determination of the density. Together, these methods give an ambient temperature equation of state of metastable liquid water down to the acoustic cavitation threshold. Empirical equations of state of water are based on experimental data at positive pressure; the validity of their extrapolation to negative pressures had been tested only indirectly or with very weakly metastable liquid. We provide thermodynamic data that prove the fidelity of recent equations of state down to -26 MPa. However, this raises questions regarding the nature of the cavitation threshold observed in acoustic experiments, which is far less negative than expected.