Electrocrystallization of supercooled water confined by graphene walls

Abstract

© 2019 Elsevier B.V. Any structural transformation of water is sensitive to external electric field, since water molecules have dipole moments. We study influence of external uniform electric field on crystallization of supercooled water enclosed between two graphene planes. Crystallization of such a system is caused by ordinary relaxation of the metastable phase into an ordered (crystalline) phase and by dipole alignment induced by an applied electric field. We prove that this system at the temperature T=268 K, where water has the density 0.94 g/cm3 and the applied electric field is of the magnitude E=0.5V/Å, crystallizes into the cubic ice with certain defects, and the crystallization proceeds over the time scale ∼5.0 ns. The obtained results can be directly used to develop methods to drive by water crystallization.