Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

The structure of a new phase of ice

Abstract

Ice has eleven known crystalline phases (Fig. 1), in which the watermolecules are linked through hydrogen bonds into tetrahedralframeworks1. Thisuncommonly large number of different solid phases attests to thestructural versatility of the water molecule. Here we reportthe identification of a new, twelfth phase of crystalline ice inthe pressure range 0.2–0.6 GPa. Thetopology of this phase is unlike that of any of the knownphases, and contains a mixture of five- and seven-membered ringsof water molecules. It has a density similar to that of iceIV, which also occurs in this pressure range within thestability region of ice V. Both phases are likely to bemetastable with respect to the less-dense ice V. This region ofthe water phase diagram thus provides a potential model system forexperimental and theoretical studies ofmetastability.

The phase diagram of ice.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 2: Observed, calculated and difference profiles for the new ice phase at 0.50 GPa and 260 K.
Figure 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Hobbs, P. V. Ice Physics (Clarendon, Oxford, (1974)).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Kamb, B., Prakash, A. & Knobler, C. Structure of ice V. Acta Cryst. 22, 706–715 (1967).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Bridgman, P. W. The PVT relations of the liquid, and the phase diagram of heavy water. J. Chem. Phys. 3, 597–605 (1935).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Engelhardt, H. & Whalley, E. Ice IV. J. Chem. Phys. 56, 2678–2684 (1972).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Lobban, C. Neutron Diffraction Studies of Ices. Thesis, Univ. London((1998)).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Larsen, A. C. & Von Dreele, R. B. GSAS — General Structure Analysis System. (University of California, (1985)).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Engelhardt, H. & Kamb, B. Structure of ice IV, a metastable high-pressure phase. J. Chem. Phys. 75, 5887–5899 (1981).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Bizhigitov, T. B. & Sirota, N. N. Low-temperature modification of high-pressure ice. JETP Lett. 44, 417–419 (1986).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank CCLRC and the Institut Laue-Langevin for access to the ISIS and ILL neutron facilities respectively, including generous allocation of the director's discretionary time which was crucial in obtaining data of quality adequate for the structure refinement. We thank also J. Dreyer and T. Cooper (ISIS) and L. Melesi (ILL) for their extensive efforts on the high-pressure equipment.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. L. Finney.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lobban, C., Finney, J. & Kuhs, W. The structure of a new phase of ice. Nature 391, 268–270 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/34622

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/34622

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing