Water Mobility in the Interfacial Liquid Layer of Ice/Clay Nanocomposites

Abstract At solid/ice interfaces, a premelting layer is formed at temperatures below the melting point of bulk water. However, the structural and dynamic properties within the premelting layer have been a topic of intense debate. Herein, we determined the translational diffusion coefficient D t of w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Main Authors: Li, Hailong, Mars, Julian, Lohstroh, Wiebke, Koza, Michael Marek, Butt, Hans‐Jürgen, Mezger, Markus
Other Authors: China Scholarship Council, Graduate School of Excellence Materials Science In Mainz
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2021
Subjects:
Ice
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.202013125
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/anie.202013125
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/anie.202013125
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Summary:Abstract At solid/ice interfaces, a premelting layer is formed at temperatures below the melting point of bulk water. However, the structural and dynamic properties within the premelting layer have been a topic of intense debate. Herein, we determined the translational diffusion coefficient D t of water in ice/clay nanocomposites serving as model systems for permafrost by quasi‐elastic neutron scattering. Below the bulk melting point, a rapid decrease of D t is found for charged hydrophilic vermiculite, uncharged hydrophilic kaolin, and more hydrophobic talc, reaching plateau values below −4 °C. At this temperature, D t in the premelting layer is reduced up to a factor of two compared to supercooled bulk water. Adjacent to charged vermiculite the lowest water mobility was observed, followed by kaolin and the more hydrophobic talc. Results are explained by the intermolecular water interactions with different clay surfaces and interfacial segregation of the low‐density liquid water (LDL) component.