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Ionic Crystal Structures

Ionic Crystal Structures

Ionic crystals consist of two or more different kinds of ions that usually have different sizes. The packing of these ions into a crystal structure is more complex than the packing of metal atoms that are the same size.
Most monatomic ions behave as charged spheres, and their attraction for ions of opposite charge is the same in every direction. Consequently, stable structures for ionic compounds result (1) when ions of one charge are surrounded by as many ions as possible of the opposite...

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Updated: Jun 10, 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

Multitwinned Ice Nanocrystals.

Xuan Zhang¹, Masakazu Matsumoto², Zhisen Zhang³

¹Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310028, P. R. China.

|October 18, 2024

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

New research reveals that decahedral and icosahedral ice nanocrystals can form from liquid water. These novel ice structures, observed via molecular dynamics simulations, challenge existing models of ice polymorphs and may be crucial for understanding cloud microphysics.

Keywords:

confined water ice multitwinning nanocrystal nucleation polycrystalline snow

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Area of Science:

Materials Science
Physical Chemistry
Geophysics

Background:

Multitwinned nanocrystals are common in materials with tetrahedral local arrangements.
Ice nanocrystals are critical in cloud microphysics, with surface structure dominating at small sizes.
Current research on ice nanocrystals primarily focuses on bulk polymorphs like hexagonal (Ih), cubic (Ic), and stacking-disordered (Isd) ice.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the spontaneous formation of decahedral and icosahedral ice nanocrystals from liquid water droplets.
To determine the thermodynamic stability of these novel ice nanocrystal structures.
To explore factors influencing the formation of multitwinned ice nanocrystals.

Main Methods:

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using the mW model for spontaneous crystallization.
Thermodynamic stability analysis using the TIP4P/Ice model.
Free energy calculations to compare stability with hexagonal ice Ih nanocrystals.

Main Results:

Decahedral and icosahedral ice nanocrystals form from nanometer-sized liquid water droplets without violating the ice rule.
The formation of twin boundaries precedes the emergence of 5-fold and icosahedral symmetry.
Icosahedral ice nanocrystals exhibit comparable thermodynamic stability to hexagonal ice Ih nanocrystals.
Formation of multitwinned ice nanocrystals is enhanced within fullerene structures.

Conclusions:

This study demonstrates the existence and stability of previously unreported decahedral and icosahedral ice nanocrystals.
The findings align with observations of specific angles in natural snow crystals, suggesting these structures play a role in atmospheric phenomena.
The enhancement of multitwinned ice nanocrystal formation within fullerenes offers a potential pathway for experimental verification.