Water squished between graphene sheets forms “square ice”
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.028743
Nature : The oxygen atom in a water molecule is tightly bound to the two hydrogen atoms, but it also experiences a slight connection with the hydrogen in neighboring molecules. Because of this, as water freezes, the molecules arrange themselves into three dimensional tetrahedral shapes. Now, Andre Geim of the University of Manchester, UK and his colleagues have discovered that water pressed between sheets of graphene freezes into an ice in which the molecules form two-dimensional layers of square shapes. The structure could be the 18th different type of water ice discovered. Geim’s team calculated that the pressure exerted on the water by the graphene sheets exceeds 10 000 atm or 1 gigapascal.
