(Credit: Iryna Dzvonkovska/Shutterstock) A new study shows that confining water to very small spaces can keep it solid past even its normal boiling point. Using carbon nanotubes, researchers from MIT report that they kept water from turning into a liquid, and even a gas, at far higher temperatures than normal. While not technically ice, this solid water could be used to create new types of wires that take advantage of solidified water's unique properties.
Researchers have known that pressure can alter the freezing and boiling points of water — it's why water boils faster in Denver than in Miami. Packing water into small spaces can also alters how its behaves. The MIT researchers took their experiment to the extreme, using nanotubes that measured just over a nanometer across — a typical red blood cell is up to 6,000 nanometers across. The tubes were so small that only a few water ...
