Even more recently, scientists discovered that water has a kind of “split personality” when it’s trapped in spaces only a few atoms wide. This is a truly exciting scientific discovery! Under high pressure and temperature extreme conditions, ice transforms into different phases, including a superionic phase, revealing extraordinary electronic properties. Coordinated by Dr. Laura Fumagalli, the pioneering study has just been published in the prestigious journal Nature. It shows, incredibly, that when water is squeezed down to 1-2 nanometers in width, it’s electrical properties transform completely.
Scientists for the first time probing that confined water discovered something unexpected. On one side, the water looks electrically dead, whereas on the other side, it starts to look electrically supercharged. This work demonstrates that the conductivity of water can approach those of superionic liquids. This upends everything we thought we knew about this ubiquitous material.
The Dual Nature of Confined Water
The results suggest that confined water is present in two different electrical regimes. In its bulk state, the dielectric constant of water approaches 80, a number largely agreed upon in the scientific community. When restricted to truly nanoscopic layers, its in-plane dielectric constant can go as high as 1,000.
This extreme modification indicates that dense water shows unusual behavior usually attributed to complex materials such as ferroelectrics and superionic liquids. These discoveries have far-reaching impacts, like developing non-toxic materials in the fields of materials science, engineering, and nanotechnology.
“Our study changes how we should think about water,” – Dr. Fumagalli
To gain a closer view of these internal structures, the research team used an emerging technique called scanning dielectric microscopy. Using this approach, they were able to interrogation water layers much thinner than the skin of a virus. First, the researchers mapped water’s electrical response at different frequencies from kilohertz to gigahertz. This latter condition in particular gave them the chance to widely explore the amazing behaviors of water when it’s trapped.
Advanced Techniques Reveal Extraordinary Talents
Revealing water’s secret talents involved crafting new, ultrasensitive measurement methods. These innovations made a world of difference in how well we understood our nation’s waters. Most importantly, they opened up exciting new opportunities to study the properties of other materials at the nanoscale.
“Just as graphene revealed unexpected physics when graphite was thinned down to a single atomic layer, this research shows that even water—the most studied liquid on Earth—can still surprise us when squeezed to its absolute thinnest,” – Prof. Geim
The implications of this research reach far beyond basic science. In the process, we stumbled upon new clues explaining water’s mysterious electrical properties. This innovation has the potential to make significant strides in applications such as energy storage, electronics, and biological systems that benefit from the presence of water.
Implications for Science and Technology
The continuing research upends long-held assumptions about the behavior of one of the most ubiquitous materials on Earth. By showing the amazing capabilities embedded within regular water, researchers hope to excite more experimental people to look into what other uses it might provide.
Dr. Fumagalli impressed upon us the significance of this work to change how people think about water.
“The most ordinary substance on Earth has extraordinary talents that were hidden until now,” – Dr. Fumagalli
As researchers read the nuances and explore the implications of these discoveries, the possibilities for new applications become clearer and broader. Understanding confined water’s unique properties may lead to breakthroughs in technology that could harness these electrical characteristics for practical uses.