Might water freeze spontaneously in tight spaces? K. B. Jinesh and Joost Frenken at Leiden University in the Netherlands say that a film of water just a few molecules thick turns to ice at room temperature when it is confined between a piece of graphite and a blunt tungsten needle.
They write that the needle tip moved jerkily across the graphite, similarly to chalk across a blackboard, rather than being lubricated by the intervening water. The jerks suggest a surface corrugation closer to that of ice than graphite. Given previous controversy about how water behaves in nanoscale spaces, the claim is likely to excite lively debate.
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Physical chemistry: Over ice. Nature 454, 554 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/454554d
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/454554d