Katrin Winkel

Water polyamorphism: Reversibility and (dis)continuity

An understanding of waters anomalies is closely linked to an understanding of the phase diagram of waters metastable noncrystalline states. Despite the considerable effort, such an understanding has remained elusive and many puzzles regarding phase transitions in supercooled liquid water and their possible amorphous proxies at low temperatures remain. Here, decompression of very high density amorphous ice (VHDA) from 1.1 to 0.02 GPa at 140 K is studied by means of dilatometry and powder x-ray diffraction of quench-recovered states. It is shown that the three amorphous states of ice are reversibly connected to each other, i.e., LDA<-->e-HDA<-->VHDA. However, while the downstroke VHDA-->e-HDA transition takes place in the pressure range of 0.06 GPaLDA transition takes place quasi-discontinuously at p approximately 0.06 GPa. That is, two amorphous-amorphous transitions of a distinct nature are observed for the first time in a one-component system-a first-order-like transition (e-HDA-->LDA) and a transition which is not first-order like but possibly of higher order (VHDA-->e-HDA). VHDA and e-HDA are established as the most stable and limiting states in the course of the transition. We interpret this as evidence disfavoring the hypothesis of multiple first-order liquid-liquid transitions (and the option of a third critical point), but favoring a single first-order liquid-liquid transition (and the option of a second critical point).

Equilibrated High-Density Amorphous Ice and Its First-Order Transition to the Low-Density Form

We investigate the downstroke transition from high- (HDA) to low-density amorphous ice (LDA) at 140 (H(2)O) and 143 K (D(2)O). The visual observation of sudden phase separation at 0.07 GPa is evidence of the first-order character of the transition. Powder X-ray diffractograms recorded on chips recovered from the propagating front show a double halo peak indicative of the simultaneous presence of LDA and HDA. By contrast, chips picked from different parts of the sample cylinder show either HDA or LDA. Growth of the low-density form takes place randomly somewhere inside of the high-density matrix. The thermal stability of HDA against transformation to LDA at ambient pressure significantly increases with decreasing recovery pressure and reaches its maximum at 0.07 GPa. A sample decompressed to 0.07 GPa is by ~17 K more stable than an unannealed HDA sample. An increasingly relaxed nature of the sample is also evident from the progressive disappearance of the broad calorimetric relaxation exotherm, preceding the sharp transition to LDA. Finally, we show that two independent thermodynamic paths lead to a very similar state of (relaxed) HDA at 140 K and 0.2 GPa. We argue that these observations imply an equilibrated nature of the amorphous sample in the pressure range of p ≲ 0.2 GPa and speculate that the observation of macroscopic phase separation involves two ultraviscous liquid phases at 140 K. This supports the scenario of a first-order liquid-liquid transition in bulk water.

Relaxation effects in low density amorphous ice: two distinct structural states observed by neutron diffraction.

Neutron diffraction with H/D isotopic substitution is used to investigate the structure of low density amorphous ice produced from (1) high density amorphous ice by isobaric warming and (2) very high density amorphous ice by isothermal decompression. Differences are found in the scattering patterns of the two low density amorphous ices that correlate with structural perturbations on intermediate length scales in the hydrogen bonded water network. Atomistic modeling suggests that the structural states of the two samples may relate to a competition between short range and intermediate range order and disorder. This structural difference in two low density amorphous (LDA) ices is also evident when comparing their compression behavior. In terms of the energy landscape formalism this finding implies that we have produced and characterized the structural difference of two different basins within the LDA-megabasin corresponding to identical macroscopic densities.

Structural transitions in amorphous H2O and D2O: the effect of temperature

We have recently observed amorphous-amorphous transitions incurred upon decompressing very high density amorphous ice (VHDA) at 140 K from 1.1 to <0.02 GPa in a piston-cylinder setup by monitoring the piston displacement as a function of pressure and by taking powder x-ray diffractograms of quench-recovered samples (Winkel et al 2008 J. Chem. Phys. 128 044510). Here we study the effect of changing the temperature from 77 to 160 K during decompression from 1.1 to <0.02 GPa, and the effect of substituting D 2 O for H 2 O at 140 and 143 K. At 77 K all structural transitions are arrested and six-coordinated VHDA is quench recovered. At 125-136 K the continuous transition to five-coordinated expanded high density amorphous ice (eHDA) takes place. At 139-140 K, both the continuous transition to eHDA and the quasi-discontinuous transition to four-coordinated LDA are observed, i.e. VHDA→ eHDA→ LDA. At 142-144 K, crystallization to mixtures of cubic ice Ic and ice IX is observed prior to the quasi-discontinuous transition, i.e. VHDA → eHDA→ ice Ic/ice IX. At 160 K ice Ic is recovered, which most likely transforms from a high-pressure ice (HPI) such as ice V, i.e. VHDA →HPI → ice Ic. Exchanging D 2 O for H 2 0 at 140 K does not significantly affect the amorphous-amorphous transitions: both the decompression curves and the powder x-ray diffractograms are unaffected within the experimental resolution. However, at 143 K D 2 O-VHDA can be decompressed according to the sequence VHDA → eHDA→ LDA, i.e. crystallization can be suppressed at ∼3 K higher temperatures.

Structural study of low concentration LiCl aqueous solutions in the liquid, supercooled, and hyperquenched glassy states

Neutron diffraction experiments on a solution of LiCl in water (R = 40) at ambient conditions and in the supercooled and hyperquenched states are reported and analyzed within the empirical potential structure refinement framework. Evidence for the modifications of the microscopic structure of the solvent in the presence of such a small amount of salt is found at all investigated thermodynamic states. On the other hand, it is evident that the structure of the hyperquenched salty sample is similar to that of pure low density amorphous water, although all the peaks of the radial distribution functions are broader in the present case. Changes upon supercooling or hyperquenching of the ions hydration shells and contacts are of limited size and evidence for segregation phenomena at these states does not clearly show up, although the presence of water separated contacts between ion of the same sign is intriguing.

Raman Spectroscopic Study of the Phase Transition of Amorphous to Crystalline β‐Carbonic Acid

Whats the matter? The laboratory Raman spectra for carbonic acid (H(2)CO(3)), both for the beta-polymorph and its amorphous state, are required to detect carbonic acid on the surface of the pole caps of Mars in 2009, when the Mars Microbeam Raman Spectrometer lands on the planet. The picture shows a martian crater with ice of unknown composition, possibly containing carbonic acid (image adapted from DLR, with permission from ESA, DLR, and FU Berlin--G. Neukum).

Cryoflotation: Densities of Amorphous and Crystalline Ices

We present an experimental method aimed at measuring mass densities of solids at ambient pressure. The principle of the method is flotation in a mixture of liquid nitrogen and liquid argon, where the mixing ratio is varied until the solid hovers in the liquid mixture. The temperature of such mixtures is in the range of 77-87 K, and therefore, the main advantage of the method is the possibility of determining densities of solid samples, which are instable above 90 K. The accessible density range (~0.81-1.40 g cm(-3)) is perfectly suitable for the study of crystalline ice polymorphs and amorphous ices. As a benchmark, we here determine densities of crystalline polymorphs (ices I(h), I(c), II, IV, V, VI, IX, and XII) by flotation and compare them with crystallographic densities. The reproducibility of the method is about ±0.005 g cm(-3), and in general, the agreement with crystallographic densities is very good. Furthermore, we show measurements on a range of amorphous ice samples and correlate the density with the d spacing of the first broad halo peak in diffraction experiments. Finally, we discuss the influence of microstructure, in particular voids, on the density for the case of hyperquenched glassy water and cubic ice samples prepared by deposition of micrometer-sized liquid droplets.

The relation between high-density and very-high-density amorphous ice.

The exact nature of the relationship between high-density (HDA) and very-high-density (VHDA) amorphous ice is unknown at present. Here we review the relation between HDA and VHDA, concentrating on experimental aspects and discuss these with respect to the relation between low-density amorphous ice (LDA) and HDA. On compressing LDA at 125 K up to 1.5 GPa, two distinct density steps are observable in the pressure-density curves which correspond to the LDA --> HDA and HDA --> VHDA conversion. This stepwise formation process LDA --> HDA --> VHDA at 125 K is the first unambiguous observation of a stepwise amorphous-amorphous-amorphous transformation sequence. Density values of amorphous ice obtained in situ between 0.3 and 1.9 GPa on isobaric heating up to the temperatures of crystallization show a pronounced change of slope at ca. 0.8 GPa which could indicate formation of a distinct phase. We infer that the relation between HDA and VHDA is very similar to that between LDA and HDA except for a higher activation barrier between the former. We further discuss the two options of thermodynamic phase transition versus kinetic densification for the HDA --> VHDA conversion.

Hexagonal ice transforms at high pressures and compression rates directly into “doubly metastable” ice phases

We report compression and decompression experiments of hexagonal ice in a piston cylinder setup in the temperature range of 170-220 K up to pressures of 1.6 GPa. The main focus is on establishing the effect that an increase in compression rate up to 4000 MPa/min has on the phase changes incurred at high pressures. While at low compression rates, a phase change to stable ice II takes place (in agreement with earlier comprehensive studies), we find that at higher compression rates, increasing fractions and even pure ice III forms from hexagonal ice. We show that the critical compression rate, above which mainly the metastable ice III polymorph is produced, decreases by a factor of 30 when decreasing the temperature from 220 to 170 K. At the highest rate capable with our equipment, we even find formation of an ice V fraction in the mixture, which is metastable with respect to ice II and also metastable with respect to ice III. This indicates that at increasing compression rates, progressively more metastable phases of ice grow from hexagonal ice. Since ices II, III, and V differ very much in, e.g., strength and rheological properties, we have prepared solids of very different mechanical properties just by variation in compression rate. In addition, these metastable phases have stability regions in the phase diagrams only at much higher pressures and temperatures. Therefore, we anticipate that the method of isothermal compression at low temperatures and high compression rates is a tool for the academic and industrial polymorph search with great potential.