China, June 9: A well-known characteristic of ice is that it breaks when we strain it. This is because of small defects like pores, and cracks in their crystalline structure. But researchers from University in Hangzhou have created thin, elastic, bendable fibers of ice. How did the researchers create flexible ice? They piped water vapour into a small electrified chamber set at -50 degrees Celsius. The electric field attracted water molecules to a tungsten needle that had been set in the centre of the chamber. As the water molecules stick to the pin, crystals of ice begin to form into fibers, just a few micrometres in diameter or less than a fraction of the width of the human hair. Then they chilled the ice to temperatures ranging from -70 to -150 degrees Celsius, measuring the elastic range at each temperature. It came to 10.9 percent on average. They also found the fibers could be bent and stretched and at one point, they were able to bend a crystal strand almost into a circle. After bending they went back to their original shape. The ice fibers were extremely transparent and capable of efficient light transmission.
News inputs from Swasti Sharma.
