Dynamics of supercooled water in confined geometry

R. Bergman () and J. Swenson
Additional contact information
R. Bergman: Department of Experimental Physics
J. Swenson: Chalmers University of Technology

Nature, 2000, vol. 403, issue 6767, 283-286

Abstract: Abstract As with most liquids, it is possible to supercool1,2,3,4 water; this generally involves cooling the liquid below its melting temperature (avoiding crystallization) until it eventually forms a glass. The viscosity and related relaxation times (τ) of glass-forming liquids typically show non-Arrhenius temperature (T) dependencies. Liquids with highly non-Arrhenius behaviour in the supercooled region are termed ‘fragile’. In contrast, liquids whose behaviour is close to the Arrhenius law (ln τ ∝ 1/T) are termed ‘strong’ ( ref. 5). A unique ‘fragile–strong’ transition around 228 K has been proposed6 for supercooled water; however, experimental studies of bulk supercooled water in this temperature range are generally hampered because crystallization occurs. Here we use broad-band dielectric spectroscopy to study the relaxation dynamics of supercooled water in a wide temperature range, including the usually inaccessible temperature region. This is possible because the supercooled water is held within a layered vermiculite clay—the geometrical confinement and presence of intercalated sodium ions prevent7 most of the water from crystallizing. We find a relaxational process with an Arrhenius temperature dependence, consistent with the proposed strong nature of deeply supercooled bulk water. Because water that is less supercooled has been established6 as highly fragile, our results support the existence of a fragile–strong transition.

Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35002027 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:403:y:2000:i:6767:d:10.1038_35002027

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35002027

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().