Stability of ice XII relative to ice V and ice VI at high pressures

Liquid water and ices: understanding the structure and physical properties

A review of the structure and some properties of condensed phases of water is given. Since the discovery of the polymorphism of crystalline ice (beginning of the twentieth century), 15 ice modifications have been found and their structures have been determined. If we do not take into consideration proton ordering or disordering, nine distinct crystalline ice modifications in which water molecules retain their individuality are known. In the tenth, ice X, there are no H(2)O molecules. It contains ions (or atoms) of oxygen and hydrogen. The structure of all these modifications is described and information about their fields of stability and about the transition between them is given. It is emphasized that there are ice modifications which are metastable at any temperature and pressure (ices Ic, IV and XII), and many modifications can exist as metastable phases beyond their fields of stability. The ability of water to exist in metastable states is one of its remarkable properties. Several amorphous ice modifications (all of them are metastable) are known. Brief information about their properties and transitions between them is given. At the end of the 1960s the conception of the water structure as a three-dimensional hydrogen-bonded network was conclusively formed. Discovery of the polymorphism of amorphous ices awakened interest in the heterogeneity of the water network. Structural and dynamical heterogeneity of liquid water is discussed in detail. Computer simulation showed that the diffusion coefficient of water molecules in dense regions of the network is lower than in the loose regions, while an increase of density of the entire network gives rise to an increase of diffusion coefficient. This finding contradicts the conceptions associated with the primitive two-state models and can be explained from pressure dependences of melting temperature and of homogeneous nucleation temperature. A brief discussion of the picture of molecular motions in liquid water based on experiment and on computer simulation is given. This picture is still very incomplete. The most fascinating idea that was put forward during the last 20 years was the second critical point conjecture. It is still not clear whether this conjecture corresponds to reality.

In situ Raman spectroscopy of low-temperature/high-pressure transformations of H2O

In situ Raman spectra of transformations of H2O as functions of pressure and temperature have been measured starting from high-density amorphous ice (HDA). Changes above Tx, the crystallization temperature of HDA, were observed. The spectra provide evidence for an abrupt, first-order-like, structural change that appears to be distinct from those associated with the transformation between low-density amorphous ice (LDA) and HDA. In separate experiments, in situ Raman spectra of ice XII transformed from HDA have been measured at various P-T regions, in order to improve the understanding of the stability limits of ice XII. The spectra of ices VI and XII differ in shape, but the vibrational frequencies are very close in the same P-T regimes. A metastable phase of ice found to form within the stability field of ice VI appears to be distinct from ice XII.

Computer simulation of the 13 crystalline phases of ice

As a reference for follow-up studies toward more accurate model parametrizations, we performed molecular-dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations for all known crystalline phases of ice, as described by the simple point-charge/extended and TIP4P water models. We started from the measured structures, densities, and temperatures, and carried out classical canonical simulations for all these arrangements. All simulated samples were cooled down close to 0 K to facilitate the comparison with theoretical estimates. We determined configurational internal energies as well as pressures, and monitored how accurately the measured configurations were preserved during the simulations. While these two models predicted very similar thermophysical and structural properties for water at ambient conditions, the predicted features for the corresponding ice polymorphs may differ significantly.

The melting temperature of the most common models of water

The melting temperature of ice I(h) for several commonly used models of water (SPC, SPC/E,TIP3P,TIP4P, TIP4P/Ew, and TIP5P) is obtained from computer simulations at p = 1 bar. Since the melting temperature of ice I(h) for the TIP4P model is now known [E. Sanz, C. Vega, J. L. F. Abascal, and L. G. MacDowell, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 255701 (2004)], it is possible to use the Gibbs-Duhem methodology [D. Kofke, J. Chem. Phys. 98, 4149 (1993)] to evaluate the melting temperature of ice I(h) for other potential models of water. We have found that the melting temperatures of ice I(h) for SPC, SPC/E, TIP3P, TIP4P, TIP4P/Ew, and TIP5P models are T = 190 K, 215 K, 146 K, 232 K, 245 K, and 274 K, respectively. The relative stability of ice I(h) with respect to ice II for these models has also been considered. It turns out that for SPC, SPC/E, TIP3P, and TIP5P the stable phase at the normal melting point is ice II (so that ice I(h) is not a thermodynamically stable phase for these models). For TIP4P and TIP4P/Ew, ice I(h) is the stable solid phase at the standard melting point. The location of the negative charge along the H-O-H bisector appears as a critical factor in the determination of the relative stability between the I(h) and II ice forms. The methodology proposed in this paper can be used to investigate the effect upon a coexistence line due to a change in the potential parameters.

A dielectric fallacy in inferring Tg of water

In a recent analysis, Angell [Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem. 55, 559 (2004)] concluded that if water's Tg is assumed to be 160 K, the plot of dielectric loss tangent tan delta against T/Tg for unsintered amorphous solid water overlaps the corresponding plots for glycerol and propylene carbonate. We point out that such an analysis falsifies both dielectrics and molecular kinetics, and is not useful for ascertaining Tg.

Spontaneous transformation of water’s high-density amorph and a two-stage crystallization to ice VI at 1 GPa: A dielectric study

Dielectric relaxation spectra of a metastable crystal phase formed on implosive and exothermic transformation of pressure-amorphized hexagonal ice have been measured in situ at 0.97 GPa pressure over a range of temperature. The metastable phase showed no relaxation peak at 130 K and 0.97 GPa. When heated at a fixed pressure of 0.97 GPa, it began to transform at approximately 145 K exothermally to a phase whose relaxation rate and equilibrium dielectric permittivity increased. A second, but slower exothermic transformation also occurred at approximately 175 K. After keeping at 213 K, the relaxation rate and equilibrium permittivity reached the known values of these two quantities for ice VI. Thus the metastable phase transformed to ice VI in two stages. It is conjectured that the intermediate phase in this transformation could be ice XII. The rate of transformation is not determined by the reorientational relaxation rate of water molecules in the ices.