Scientists have discovered the secret of the ideal arrangement of ice particles

The researchers noted that, unlike most other materials, ice particles at very low temperatures

temperatures become less ordered.Scientists have set themselves the task of theoretically substantiating the reasons why this happens and how order can be restored in the laboratory. The team relied on a relatively little-known yet fundamental property of very low-temperature ice: ferroelectricity. This is the occurrence of spontaneous polarization in a crystal at certain temperatures.

“In a perfectly ordered piece of ice, atomsThe hydrogen of each water molecule must point in one direction, it can be compared to a company of soldiers. Instead, water molecules in ice, even at very low temperatures, can look in different directions, ”the scientists noted.

25% of purification systems do not filter emissions from Russian enterprises

The researchers explained this behavior of moleculesimpurities - as soon as they enter the initial nonequilibrium low-temperature state, they affect the molecules that are in front of and behind them. This extremely atypical process has many characteristics that can explain the incomplete onset of ferroelectric order in ice.

“Our research is still limited to smallamount of ice, but this mechanism seems to apply to all molecules. In particular, this explains the long-known small local ferroelectric polarization, a phenomenon related to the agglomeration of ice particles in interstellar space, ”the researchers noted.

Read also

Abortion and science: what will happen to the children who will give birth

Check out the most beautiful pictures of Hubble. What has the telescope seen in 30 years?

NASA published a photo of the Earth from the moon, which was taken in 1968