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A New Phase of Superionic Ice

Accepted submission by canopic jug at 2023-10-16 07:43:58 from the not-quite-ice-nine dept.
Science

ScienceAlert has a summary of a report on a new phase of superionic ice [sciencealert.com] as developed in the lab.

Scientists confirmed in 2019 [sciencealert.com] what physicists had predicted back in 1988 [doi.org]: a structure where the oxygen atoms in superionic ice are locked in a solid cubic lattice, while the ionized hydrogen atoms are let loose, flowing through that lattice like electrons through metals.

This gives superionic ice its conductive properties. It also raises its melting point [quantamagazine.org] such that the frozen water remains solid at blistering temperatures.

Superionic ice might be the most common form of water in the universe.


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