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Unlike ionic or small covalent molecules, polymers do not form crystalline solids due to the diffusion limitations of their long-chain structures. However, polymers contain microscopic crystalline domains separated by amorphous domains.
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Updated: Aug 12, 2025

A Microfluidic Approach for the Study of Ice and Clathrate Hydrate Crystallization

A Microfluidic Approach for the Study of Ice and Clathrate Hydrate Crystallization

Published on: August 18, 2022

Medium-density amorphous ice.

Alexander Rosu-Finsen¹, Michael B Davies^2,3, Alfred Amon¹

¹Department of Chemistry, University College London, London WC1H 0AJ, UK.

Science (New York, N.Y.)

|February 2, 2023

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers discovered a new form of amorphous ice, medium-density amorphous ice (MDA), through ball milling. This finding challenges the established density gap in water

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Area of Science:

Materials Science
Cosmology
Geophysics

Background:

Amorphous ices play a role in cosmological processes and explaining the anomalies of liquid water.
Current understanding of water is based on a density gap between low-density and high-density amorphous ice.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the existence and properties of amorphous ice structures.
To challenge the established density gap model for amorphous water.

Main Methods:

Ball milling of ordinary ice Ih at low temperatures.
Structural analysis of the resulting amorphous ice.
Compression of the synthesized medium-density amorphous ice (MDA).

Main Results:

Discovery of a structurally distinct medium-density amorphous ice (MDA) within the previously known density gap.
MDA may represent the true glassy state of liquid water or a sheared crystalline state.
Compression of MDA significantly increases its recrystallization enthalpy.

Conclusions:

The existence of MDA challenges the traditional two-state model of amorphous water.
MDA could be the genuine amorphous state of water, impacting our understanding of its anomalies.
Water, in its amorphous forms, can function as a high-energy geophysical material.