Don\u2019t mess with ice. When it\u2019s stressed, ice can get seriously sparky.<\/p>\n
Scientists have discovered that ordinary ice\u2014the same substance found in iced coffee or the frosty sprinkle on mountaintops\u2014is imbued with remarkable electromechanical properties. Ice is flexoelectric<\/a>, so when it\u2019s bent, stretched, or twisted, it can generate electricity, according to a Nature Physics<\/a> paper published August 27. What\u2019s more, ice\u2019s peculiar electric properties appear to change with temperature, leading researchers to wonder what else it\u2019s hiding.<\/p>\n The paper changes \u201chow we view ice: from a passive material to an active material that may be at play for both fundamentals and applications,\u201d A cold case in molecular chemistry <\/p>\n An unsolved mystery in molecular chemistry is why the structure of ice prevents it from being piezoelectric. By piezoelectricity, scientists refer to the generation of an electric charge when mechanical stress changes a solid\u2019s overall polarity, or electric dipole moment.<\/p>\n The water molecules that make up an ice crystal are polarized. But when these individual molecules organize into a hexagonal crystal, the geometric arrangement randomly orients the dipoles of these water molecules. As a result, the final system can\u2019t generate any piezoelectricity.<\/p>\n However, it\u2019s well known that ice can naturally generate electricity, an example being how lightning strikes emerge from the collisions between charged ice particles. Because ice doesn\u2019t appear to be piezoelectric, scientists were confused as to how the ice particles became charged in the first place.<\/p>\n
Xin Wen, study lead author and a nanophysicist at Institut Catala de Nanociencia i Nanotecnologia in Spain, told Gizmodo in an email.<\/p>\n