Korean Scientists Discover Ice XXI: A New Form of Ice Born at Immense Pressure
- MM24 News Desk
- 5 hours ago
- 2 min read
Scientists at the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) have discovered a new form of ice, dubbed Ice XXI, by observing water crystallize under a staggering two gigapascals (GPa) of pressure at room temperature. Using a custom dynamic diamond anvil cell (dDAC) and the European XFEL, the world's most powerful X-ray laser, the team captured the microsecond-scale process, revealing previously unknown multiple freezing pathways for water.
This breakthrough, reported by KRISS, cracks open a century-old scientific puzzle. While we typically think of ice forming at 0°C, it can also crystallize under immense pressure, even at room temperature. The region between ambient pressure and 2 GPa is notoriously complex, hosting more than ten different ice phases. The KRISS team managed to compress water to over twice its known crystallization pressure, creating a "supercompressed" liquid state that allowed them to witness the birth of a completely new ice phase.
The key to this discovery was the team's innovative technology. Unlike conventional diamond anvil cells, which can cause premature freezing due to mechanical shocks, the in-house developed dynamic diamond anvil cell (dDAC) minimized perturbations and slashed compression time from tens of seconds to just 10 milliseconds. This gentle, rapid compression pushed water into uncharted territory without it immediately turning into known forms of ice like Ice VI.
“By combining our in-house developed dDAC technology with the XFEL, we were able to capture fleeting moments that had been inaccessible with conventional instruments,” said Dr. Lee Geun Woo, Principal Research Scientist at KRISS and the project's principal investigator. The international collaboration, which involved 33 scientists from six countries, used the European XFEL to achieve microsecond time resolution, effectively making a high-speed movie of water molecules arranging into a solid.
What they observed was a complex dance of crystallization. The water didn't follow a single path to becoming ice; it navigated multiple pathways, all funneling through the newly identified Ice XXI. The structure of Ice XXI is remarkably complex, with a large, flattened rectangular unit cell that distinguishes it from the 20 ice phases known before. This structural complexity hints at the strange behavior matter exhibits under extreme conditions.
The implications of this discovery extend far beyond a laboratory curiosity. According to Dr. Lee Yun-Hee, Principal Research Scientist at KRISS and a co-first author of the study, "The density of Ice XXI is comparable to the high-pressure ice layers inside the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn. This discovery may provide new clues for exploring the origins of life under extreme conditions in space." Understanding these high-pressure ices helps scientists model the interior oceans and potential habitability of distant celestial bodies.
This research, according to Dr. Lee Geun Woo, opens new frontiers in science. The ability to control and observe phase transitions under such extreme conditions could lead to the creation of entirely new materials not found naturally on Earth. The world's first discovery of Ice XXI not only adds a new member to water's family but also demonstrates a powerful new method for probing the fundamental behavior of matter under the most demanding environments, both on our planet and beyond.