The researchers find that the strained ice generates electricity

Do not mess with ice. When emphasized, the ice can become spark very seriously.

Scientists have discovered that the normal ice – the same substance in iced coffee or lukewarm spraying on the mountain format – is saturated with great electromechanical properties. Ice FlexoySo when he bends, extends, or twisted, he can generate electricity, according to Nature Physics A paper published on August 27. What’s more, ICE’s electrical properties appear to change with the temperature, which prompted researchers to ask what is hidden.

The paper changes “How do we look at ice: from a negative material to an active substance that may be in both the basics and applications”, “
Gizmodo said in an email:

A cold case in molecular chemistry

The ambiguity that has not been solved in the molecular chemistry is the reason that the ice structure prevents it from being approved. By piezoelectricity, scientists indicate the generation of electrical charge when the mechanical strain changes the total solid polarity, or the moment of the electrode.

Water molecules that make up polarized ice crystals. But when these individual molecules are organized in a hexagonal crystal, the engineering arrangement randomly attracts these water molecules. As a result, the final system cannot generate any photovoltaic.

However, it is well known that the ice can generate electricity naturally, an example of this is how lightning strikes appear from the collision between the charged ice molecules. Since the ice does not seem to be a stressful applicability, scientists have been confused about how the ice molecules are charged in the first place.

“Despite the constant interest and a wide range of knowledge on the ice, New stages and abnormal characteristics continue to be discoveredThe researchers noticed in the paper, adding that this non -satisfactory knowledge gap indicates “our understanding of this substance everywhere incomplete.”

Simple solution is shockingly

Fortunately, science loves to divide basic concepts. Electricity is not an exception, so the researchers decided to investigate different “types” of electricity.

They explained that the engineering has put forward the largest obstacle to understanding the electrical behavior that is observed in ICE, so the team chose as a mortgage, which could “exist in materials of any symmetry,” they explained.

As for the experiment, they put a panel of ice between the two poles simultaneously asserting at one time that any electricity it produced was not a photovoltaic. To excite them, create a bending of the electrical charge board, and at all temperatures as well. However, what they did not expect is a delicate, photovoltaic layer formed on the surface of the iceboard less than -171.4 ° F (-113 ° C).

“This means that the surface of the ice can develop a natural electrical polarization, which can be reversed when applying an external electric field – similar to how the magnets can be turned.” statement.

Surprisingly, “the ice may only have one way to generate electricity but two: photovoltaic at very low temperatures and medical energy at higher temperatures up to 0 (degree C),” added Win.

The benefit of the stressful ice

The researchers said that the result is useful and rich in information. First, the “face” places a flexible photovoltaic and the ice softening “on an equal footing with electrical materials such as titanium dioxide, which is currently used in advanced technologies such as sensors and capacitors.

Perhaps the most obvious is the link to discovery with natural phenomena, which are thunderstorms. According to the paper, the electrical capabilities resulting from photoism in the experiment are closely identical to the energy produced by ice particles. At least, it will make sense to partially share the digestive system on how ice molecules inside thunder interact.

Wayne told Gizmodo: “Through this new knowledge of ice, we will reconsider the ice -related operations in nature to find whether there is any other deep result of the ice breeds that were ignored along the way,” Wayne told Gizmodo.

Both conclusions will need more scrutiny, and the researchers admitted. However, the results offer a new insight into something common like ice – and show the amount that is still learned about our world.