Scientists create a fingerprint to identify rare ice in space
Researchers have determined how to spectroscopically distinguish ferroelectric ice XI from common ice using Raman and infrared signatures. The discovery could enable detection of this exotic ice form in extraterrestrial environments and resolve a decades-old debate about hydrogen bonding in ice structures.
Originaltitel: Raman and IR Spectra of Ice Ih and Ice XI with an Assessment of DFT Methods
<p>IR and Raman spectroscopic technology can be directly used to identify the occurrence of ferroelectric ice XI in laboratory or extraterrestrial settings. The performance of 16 different DFT methods applied on the ice Ih, VIII, IX, and XI crystal phases is evaluated. Based on a selected DFT computational scheme, the IR and Raman spectra of ice Ih and XI are derived and compared. When the spectra, both IR and Raman, of ice Ih and ice XI are compared, the librational vibrations are found to be the most affected by the proton ordering. The spectroscopic fingerprint of ice XI can be used to distinguish ferroelectric ice XI from ice Ih in the universe. Furthermore, the existence of only one kind of H-bond in ice Ih is demonstrated from the overlapping subspectra for different types of H-bonded pair configurations in 16 isomers of ice Ih, which provides an illustration to the historic debate on whether one or two kinds of H-bonds existed in ice.</p>