Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: De on 01/03/2011 03:30:03

Title: What does ice 7 look like?
Post by: De on 01/03/2011 03:30:03
De asked the Naked Scientists:
   
Hello Chris,

This other I found myself watching the nasa channel.  They spoke about something called ice 7, but there weren't any actually imagines of what ice 7 looks like, only a vague animation.  I would like to know if there are any research facilities that could possibly show me, if you know any in the Los Angeles/ Orange county Ca. area?  If not how would i be able to create the conditions for ice 7 myself?

De

What do you think?
Title: What does ice 7 look like?
Post by: flr on 01/03/2011 03:48:00
See the link:

http://www.btinternet.com/~martin.chaplin/ice_vii.html

If you have the plugin chime you can interact with that structure (rotate it, enlarge it, and others).
Title: What does ice 7 look like?
Post by: Soul Surfer on 01/03/2011 23:38:05
That link gives a lot of useful information

Like many other compounds ice exhibits many different crystalline forms dependant on the temperature and pressure under which it was crystallised.  Most of these require very high pressures that are not achievable in a home laboratory normal atmospheric pressure is about 100 KPa  ice seven requires a pressure around 2 GPa that is over 2000 atmospheres.

As for the appearance  different crystal structures can cause materials to look different if the bond structures resonate at optical frequencies but normal ice is colourless and transparent and I have no immediate reason for believing that the other crystalline forms will look substantially different from normal ice.