Room temperature electrofreezing of water yields a missing dense ice phase in the phase diagram

Nat Commun. 2019 Apr 26;10(1):1925. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-09950-z.

Abstract

Water can freeze into diverse ice polymorphs depending on the external conditions such as temperature (T) and pressure (P). Herein, molecular dynamics simulations show evidence of a high-density orthorhombic phase, termed ice χ, forming spontaneously from liquid water at room temperature under high-pressure and high external electric field. Using free-energy computations based on the Einstein molecule approach, we show that ice χ is an additional phase introduced to the state-of-the-art T-P phase diagram. The χ phase is the most stable structure in the high-pressure/low-temperature region, located between ice II and ice VI, and next to ice V exhibiting two triple points at 6.06 kbar/131.23 K and 9.45 kbar/144.24 K, respectively. A possible explanation for the missing ice phase in the T-P phase diagram is that ice χ is a rare polarized ferroelectric phase, whose nucleation/growth occurs only under very high electric fields.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't