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‘Melting ice’ I at 77 K and 10 kbar: a new method of making amorphous solids - Nature

  • ️Whalley, E.
  • ️Thu Aug 02 1984
  • Letter
  • Published: 02 August 1984

Nature volume 310pages 393–395 (1984)Cite this article

Abstract

Amorphous solids are made mainly by cooling the liquid below the glass transition without crystallizing it, a method used since before recorded history1, and by depositing the vapour onto a cold plate2, as well as by several other methods3,4. We report here a new way—by ‘melting’ a solid by pressure below the glass transition of the liquid—and apply it to making a new kind of amorphous ice. Thus, ice I has been transformed to an amorphous phase, as determined by X-ray diffraction, by pressurizing it at 77 K to its extrapolated melting point of 10 kbar. At the melting point, the fluid is well below its glass transition. On heating at a rate of 2.6 K min−1 at zero pressure it transforms at 117 K to a second amorphous phase with a heat evolution of 42±8 J g−1 and at 152 K further transforms to ice I with a heat evolution of 92±15 J g−1. In one sample, ice Ic was formed and in another, existing crystals of ice Ih grew from the amorphous phase. Heating below the 117 K transition causes irreversible changes in the diffraction pattern, and a continuous range of amorphous phases can be made. Similar transformations will probably occur in all solids whose melting point decreases with increasing pressure if they can be cooled sufficiently for a transformation to a crystalline solid to be too slow.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Chemistry, National Research Council, Ottawa, Canada, K1A 0R9

    O. Mishima, L. D. Calvert & E. Whalley

Authors

  1. O. Mishima

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  2. L. D. Calvert

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  3. E. Whalley

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Mishima, O., Calvert, L. & Whalley, E. ‘Melting ice’ I at 77 K and 10 kbar: a new method of making amorphous solids. Nature 310, 393–395 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1038/310393a0

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  • Received: 20 February 1984

  • Accepted: 09 May 1984

  • Issue Date: 02 August 1984

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/310393a0

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