Despite its general availability, water still hides many amazing properties. And one of these properties was recently discovered by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The fact is that water placed in tiny nanotubes can freeze even at high temperatures.
The discovery came as a real surprise to the team of industrial chemists Professor Michael Strano, who experimented with passing electricity through water in nanotubes.
“We noticed unexpected changes in some calculations and found that these changes were the result of heating,” explains Lee Drakhuschuk, co-author of the article describing the discovery.
“Having started to systematically change the temperature, we realized that the changes are accompanied by the effect of a phase transition of the state of water in nanotubes from liquid to solid.”
The researchers decided to test this behavior, but were surprised to find out how strange it seemed. At temperatures of at least 105 degrees Celsius (which is above the boiling point of water), the liquid in their nanotubes froze. This direction of the phase transition was extremely surprised by scientists.
However, the mysteries did not end there. For example, scientists don't fully understand how water can seep through nanotubes. The fact is that nanotubes are only a few water molecules thick and, at the same time, initially have a water-repellent property. Nevertheless, filling them with water was not difficult at all.
“In most cases, water can seep into carbon nanotubes on its own. To a greater or lesser extent, the process is similar to how water is absorbed into paper or other porous substances, but taking into account a significantly reduced scale. However, in this case, we need to open the "plugs" of the nanotubes - each of them has natural caps at the ends, "says Drakhuschuk.
In addition to increasing our knowledge of the properties of water, this discovery may be of quite practical importance. Due to their characteristic of remaining in a stable solid state, even with significant temperature changes, these water-filled nanotubes could be used, for example, as "ice wires" that would act as efficient pathways for proton transfer. As you know, water conducts protons 10 times better than other conductive substances and materials.
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NIKOLAY KHIZHNYAK