Electron diffraction of deeply supercooled water in no man's land

Supercooled water in so-called no man's land promises to reveal the origin of the water anomalies. Here, the authors use electron diffraction to provide the first characterization that spans this temperature range, which narrows down the array of possible explanations. A generally accepted understanding of the anomalous properties of water will only emerge if it becomes possible to systematically characterize water in the deeply supercooled regime, from where the anomalies appear to emanate. This has largely remained elusive because water crystallizes rapidly between 160 K and 232 K. Here, we present an experimental approach to rapidly prepare deeply supercooled water at a well-defined temperature and probe it with electron diffraction before crystallization occurs. We show that as water is cooled from room temperature to cryogenic temperature, its structure evolves smoothly, approaching that of amorphous ice just below 200 K. Our experiments narrow down the range of possible explanations for the origin of the water anomalies and open up new avenues for studying supercooled water.

Automated summary

The authors utilize electron diffraction to characterize supercooled water in the no man's land for the first time, narrowing down possible explanations for its anomalies. Systematic characterization of deeply supercooled water has been elusive due to rapid crystallization, but their experimental approach allows for rapid preparation and analysis. The study shows that as water is cooled, its structure evolves smoothly towards amorphous ice, providing new insights into the origin of water anomalies.