Discovering a new state of water in a high pressure experiment

During an experiment involving the expressive increase of the pressure In a controlled environment, scientists at the University of Nevada – Las Vegas have been able to reproduce a new state of water – a kind of “continuum”. ice“, with the label discovery”Ice Fit(“Ice-VII” – the numbers that make up the number “7”, and “t” come from “transition”).

Without judging the missed opportunity to name the article “Blizzaga” (who plays Final Fantasy to be determined with reference), the scientists explained that the new state should not occur naturally in a landbut it may help explain the behavior of water on planets and other space objects.

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It is worth clarifying: Although our classes in chemistry And the Physics I touched on this subject in a simpler way (that is, three states: solid, liquid and gaseous, as well as sublimation, which is the direct passage from solid to gaseous), water is much stranger than its terrestrial transformations show.

Roughly speaking, we know about 19 or 20 different states of ice, which may or may not occur naturally depending on their molecular arrangements. An ice cube you’ll forget in your freezer Because of the summer Already finished, for example, “Ice-I” or “Ice-1”. This is the most disastrous method, in molecular terms, because all the oxygen in this composition is arranged somewhat randomly, so any change breaks that order.

However, when we subject known ice to different pressures and temperatures, these molecules can recombine in a more orderly fashion: Ice-X (“Ice-10”), for example, is exactly symmetric ice.

Ice-VII, part of the current research, is the ice with the most “straight” oxygen but messy hydrogen. While the number “10” exists when an ice cube is subjected to pressures many times greater than sea level on Earth, Ice-VII comes in the opposite direction – lower pressures.

Essentially, scientists led by physicist Zach Grande filled a small container made of DiamondEverything freezes into tiny crystals. Then they used periodic lasers to heat everything up, forcing the material to thaw before freezing it again, obtaining what they called “crystalline powder.”

Constant monitoring, in parallel with laser shots, made the scientists see the transition from “Ice-VII” to “Ice-X”. Amidst this, a new intermediate state of water appeared, which they called “Ice Fit“

“Zach’s work shows that this transition to an ionic state occurs at a much lower pressure than we initially thought,” said physicist Ashkan Salamat of the University of Las Vegas (not involved in the study). “It’s the missing link, the most accurate measurements of water under these conditions.”

The study has been published with the team’s findings in the scientific journal physical review b.

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