Metastable ice VII at low temperature and ambient pressure (original) (raw)

Nature volume 398, pages 681–684 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

Ice exhibits many solid-state transformations under pressure, and also displays a variety of metastable phases1. Most of the high-pressure phases of ice can be recovered at ambient pressure provided that they are first cooled below about 100 K. These ice polymorphs might exist on the surfaces of several satellites of the outer planets2. One of the few exceptions to this (meta)stability on quenching has been ice VII, the dominant high-pressure phase. Here we show that isothermal compression of D2O ice VI below 95 K produces pure ice VII, and that this phase can remain stable at atmospheric pressure. It remains metastable indefinitely at 77 K. Like the other recoverable ice phases, it transforms to low-density amorphous ice between about 120 and 150 K at 1 bar. Thetemperature range over which ice VII remains metastable increases markedly on compression to 6 GPa, indicating that ice VII is in fact the most robust of all the metastable ice phases.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the UK EPSRC and the UK CCLRC, as well as the French Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers and the French Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physique des Milieux Condenss UMR 7602,
    S. Klotz & J. M. Besson
  2. Départment des Hautes Pressions, Université P&M Curie, B77, 75252, Paris, France
    G. Hamel
  3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
    R. J. Nelmes & J. S. Loveday
  4. ISIS Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, OX11 0QX, Didcot, UK
    W. G. Marshall

Authors

  1. S. Klotz
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  2. J. M. Besson
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  3. G. Hamel
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  4. R. J. Nelmes
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  5. J. S. Loveday
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  6. W. G. Marshall
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Correspondence toS. Klotz.

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Klotz, S., Besson, J., Hamel, G. et al. Metastable ice VII at low temperature and ambient pressure.Nature 398, 681–684 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/19480

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