Discover how water freezes

2002/04/02 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Kimika

A team of Japanese researchers has taken six years to create the first computer simulation of the water freeze process.

The process of freezing water is very complex, since water molecules tend to interact a thousand times different with those in the environment. The Japanese measured intermolecular force orientations in 512 water molecules. After the measurements and waiting long, they could observe the freezing of some molecules. They saw that the generation of long hydrogen bonds between water molecules was the first essential step. These connections were much longer than conventional ones. Later, by changing the shape of this nucleus, more links were formed with other molecules around it and the liquid began to become ice.

Consequently, this peculiar structure must be created by chance so that the water begins to freeze. Otherwise, water molecules move freely in a liquid state without forming such conformations. This trend would explain why water is often colder than its freezing point but does not freeze.