A scientific first has been achieved by experts at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), with some help from a platinum wafer.

Scientists have managed to develop monolayers of water molecules, resting upon a platinum substrate, which did not bond with other molecules to create a three-dimensional growth of ice, as would normally be expected.

Using the platinum substrate, the scientists were able to test a theory produced by Cambridge University last year, which stated that the attachment points generally thought to exist in water molecules do not exist and would be drawn by the existence of a noble metal surface.

Platinum was used as that surface and the results found that, because the water molecules' four bonds were taken – three by neighbouring molecules and one by the platinum substrate – the molecules repelled further water and did not bond with them, meaning that the ice did not "grow" as it naturally does.

Greg Kimmel, staff scientist at the Department of Energy at PNNL, commented: “Water-surface interactions are ubiquitous in nature and play an important role in many technological applications such as catalysis and corrosion."

He explained that the water molecules placed on top of the original monolayers did not wet the ice, therefore meaning that the water molecules on the platinum substrate were hydrophobic.


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