Interfacial Melting of Ice in Contact withSiO2

Abstract

The physical behavior of condensed matter can be drastically altered in the presence of interfaces. Using a high-energy x-ray transmission-reflection scheme, we have studied ice-SiO2 model interfaces. We observed the formation of a quasiliquid layer below the bulk melting temperature and determined its thickness and density as a function of temperature. The quasiliquid layer has stronger correlations than water and a large density close to rho(HDA)=1.17 g/cm(3) of high-density amorphous ice suggesting a structural relationship with the postulated high-density liquid phase of water.

Melting and freezing of water in cylindrical silica nanopores

“…A surface prefreezing effect seems most unlikely, since it would be contrary to the premelting effect of ice observed at a macroscopic ice/silica interface. 13 The satellite peak might originate from some structural transition in the nonfreezing contact layer near the pore walls or, even more speculative, from a transition in the core of the pore liquid at a temperature above its freezing point. Further work is needed to elucidate the nature of this small transition.…”

“…The classical theories of wetting phenomena 12 predict that in this case a thin liquid-like layer will intervene between the solid and the wall at and somewhat below the solid/liquid coexistence temperature. For ice against a macroscopically flat silica surface it was found 13 that interfacial premelting starts at a temperature 15 K below T 0 and that the thickness of the quasi-liquid layer strongly increases as T 0 is approached. Theoretical studies have indicated, however, that for curved substrates all wetting transitions are suppressed and, for cylinders and spheres, the prewetting transition is smeared by finite-size effects.…”

Silica Surface Features and Their Role in the Adsorption of Biomolecules: Computational Modeling and Experiments

“…544 In other words, interfacial melting occurs at the ice-amorphous SiO 2 contact, just the opposite of the phenomenon mentioned for crystalline silica interfaces. The thickness of the interfacial layer within which the chemical and physical…”

“…542 Before entering into the details of the main contributions, it is worth mentioning the major experimental data that sheds light on the influence of the hard matter (silica) on the soft one, even at short length scales (1 nm or less): Shen et al 543 reported that water at the interface with Q(0001) organizes in an ice-like structure in a certain pH range (Figure 37a). At the opposite, Engemann et al 544 evidenced that amorphous silica induces a liquid-like layer at the silica-ice interface ( Figure 37b). However, experiments do not -or not yet-give information on the local H-bond breaking/making between silanols and water.…”

The puzzling unsolved mysteries of liquid water: Some recent progress

“…This work, supported by the NSF Chemistry Division, has been carried out with many collaborators and has been heavily influenced by a number of experimentalists including S.-H. Chen [44,50,77,82], L. Liu [39,40], F. Mallamace [85,86], O. Mishima [13,87,88], J. Teixeira [89][90][91], M.-C. Bellissent [92][93][94][95], and H. Reichert [96].…”