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ORNL researchers discover new state of water molecule

Posted at 11:38 am April 23, 2016
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

berylCoverImage_horz

ORNL researchers discovered that water in beryl displays some unique and unexpected characteristics. (Photo by Jeff Scovil)

 

Neutron scattering and computational modeling have revealed unique and unexpected behavior of water molecules under extreme confinement that is unmatched by any known gas, liquid, or solid states.

In a paper published in Physical Review Letters, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory describe a new tunneling state of water molecules confined in hexagonal ultra-small channels—5 angstrom across—of the mineral beryl. An angstrom is 1/10-billionth of a meter, and individual atoms are typically about 1 angstrom in diameter.

The discovery, made possible with experiments at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the United Kingdom, demonstrates features of water under ultra confinement in rocks, soil, and cell walls, which scientists predict will be of interest across many disciplines.

“At low temperatures, this tunneling water exhibits quantum motion through the separating potential walls, which is forbidden in the classical world,” said lead author Alexander Kolesnikov of ORNL’s Chemical and Engineering Materials Division. “This means that the oxygen and hydrogen atoms of the water molecule are ‘delocalized’ and therefore simultaneously present in all six symmetrically equivalent positions in the channel at the same time. It’s one of those phenomena that only occur in quantum mechanics and has no parallel in our everyday experience.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: Alexander Kolesnikov, Andrew Seel, Andrey Podlesnyak, Chemical and Engineering Materials Division, computational modeling, David Wesolowski, DOE, Eugene Mamontov, George Ehlers, George Reiter, Lake Washington Institute of Technology, Narayani Choudhury, neutron scattering, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, ORNL, Physical Review Letters, quantum mechanics, quantum motion, quantum tunneling, Quantum Tunneling of Water in Beryl: a New State of the Water Molecule, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, SNS, Spallation Neutron Source, Timothy Prisk, U.S. Department of Energy, University of Houston, University of Washington, water, water molecule

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