New evidence that water separates into two different liquids at low temperatures
A new kind of "phase transition" in water was first proposed 30 years ago in a study by researchers from Boston University. Because the transition has been predicted to occur at supercooled conditions, however, confirming its existence has been a challenge.
That's because, at these low temperatures, water really does not want to be a liquid, instead, it wants to rapidly become ice. Because of its hidden status, much is still unknown about this liquid-liquid phase transition, unlike the everyday examples of phase transitions in water between a solid or vapor phase and a liquid phase.
This new evidence, published in Nature Physics, represents a significant step forward in confirming the idea of a liquid-liquid phase transition first proposed in 1992.