Lithium hydroxide dihydrate: a new type of icy material at elevated pressure

We show that, in addition to the known monohydrate, LiOH forms a dihydrate at elevated pressure. The dihydrate involves a large number of H-bonds establishing chains along the <001> direction. In addition, the energy surface exhibits a saddle point for proton locations along certain O interatomic distances, a feature characteristic for superprotonic conductors. However, MD simulations indicate that LiOH · 2H(2)O is not a superprotonic conductor and suggest the relevant interpolyhedral O-O distances being too large to allow for proton transfer between neighboring Li-coordinated polyhedra at least on the time scale of the MD-simulations.