AI Insight
Researchers using ANSTO facilities discovered that water confined at the nanoscale in soft environments can be prevented from freezing, instead undergoing a direct transition from liquid to glass phase. This study provides new insights into water's behavior at very low temperatures when spatially restricted at the molecular level. The research resolves fundamental questions about water's phase transitions under confinement conditions.
Why it matters
The findings have direct applications for improving cryopreservation techniques for biological materials, enhancing food-freezing technologies, and understanding how water behaves inside living cells where it exists in confined nanoscale spaces. This knowledge could lead to better preservation methods and deeper understanding of cellular processes.
Understand the Science
An international collaboration of researchers has used ANSTO’s facilities to uncover new properties of one of the most fundamental everyday materials, water, and answer an important scientific question. The findings, published in Nature Communications, have practical implications for understanding water at very low temperatures. The findings are relevant to cryopreservation of biological materials, food-freezing technologies and understanding water in living cells, where it is often confined at the nanoscale.
Source: Soft nanoscale confinement prevents ice, exposing water's liquid-to-glass transition