Shephard, JJ; Slater, B; Harvey, P; Hart, M; Bull, CL; Bramwell, ST; Salzmann, CG; (2018) Doping-induced disappearance of ice II from water’s phase diagram. Nature Physics , 14 pp. 569-572. 10.1038/s41567-018-0094-z.

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Abstract

Water and the many phases of ice display a plethora of complex physical properties and phase relationships 1–4 that are of paramount importance in a range of settings including processes in Earth’s hydrosphere, the geology of icy moons, industry and even the evolution of life. Well-known examples include the unusual behaviour of supercooled water 2 , the emergent ferroelectric ordering in ice films 4 and the fact that the ‘ordinary’ ice Ih floats on water. We report the intriguing observation that ice II, one of the high-pressure phases of ice, disappears in a selective fashion from water’s phase diagram following the addition of small amounts of ammonium fluoride. This finding exposes the strict topologically constrained nature of the ice II hydrogen-bond network, which is not found for the competing phases. In analogy to the behaviour of frustrated magnets 5 , the presence of the exceptional ice II is argued to have a wider impact on water’s phase diagram, potentially explaining its general tendency to display anomalous behaviour. Furthermore, the impurity-induced disappearance of ice II raises the prospect that specific dopants may not only be able to suppress certain phases but also induce the formation of new phases of ice in future studies.

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