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Metastable water at subzero temperatures
Author(s) -
Franks Felix
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
journal of microscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.569
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2818
pISSN - 0022-2720
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2818.1986.tb02719.x
Subject(s) - sublimation (psychology) , eutectic system , metastability , supercooling , amorphous ice , vaporization , aqueous solution , supersaturation , amorphous solid , ice ih , thermodynamics , evaporation , solubility , materials science , plasticizer , vapor pressure , chemistry , chemical physics , chemical engineering , crystallography , molecule , organic chemistry , microstructure , composite material , psychology , physics , engineering , psychotherapist
SUMMARY The origins of physical and chemical metastability in aqueous systems are discussed with particular reference to supersaturated solutions, i.e. those where eutectic phase separation does not normally occur. Such solutions are characterized by high viscosities, and under conditions of rapid cooling to the glass temperature, freezing can be partly or completely inhibited. In such systems water acts as a plasticizer to the solute matrix but is not bound, in the correct sense of the word. At a glass temperature of 228 K, diffusion and evaporation rates of water from the amorphous solid are of the order of 1 nm/day, compared to 10 4 nm/s for the sublimation of ice at same temperature, despite the fact that ice has a substantially lower vapour pressure.