superionic ice tagged posts

How a conductive form of ice is formed at several thousand degrees and millions of times atmospheric pressure. Not all ice is the same. The solid form of water comes in more than a dozen different – sometimes more, sometimes less crystalline – structures, depending on the conditions of pressure and temperature in the environment. Superionic ice is a special crystalline form, half solid, half liquid — and electrically conductive. Its existence has been predicted on the basis of various models and has already been observed on several occasions under — very extreme — laboratory conditions...

Visualization of molecular dynamics simulations showing the fast diffusion of hydrogen ions (pink trajectories) within the solid lattice of oxygen in superionic ice. Credit: S. Hamel/M. Millot/J.Wickboldt/LLNL/NIF

Scientists have provided the first experimental evidence for superionic conduction in water ice at planetary interior conditions, verifying a 30-year-old prediction. Among the many discoveries on matter at high pressure that garnered him the Nobel Prize in 1946, scientist Percy Bridgman discovered 5 different crystalline forms of water ice, ushering in more than 100 years of research into how ice behaves under extreme conditions.

One of the most intriguing properties of water is that it may become superionic when heated to several thousand degrees at high pressure, similar to the...