Nano Ice

Water: Ice forming on nano scale



Credit: Sandia National Laboratory

The ice crystals start to join up in plates when the overall thickness is about 4 nm thick.


The image above is showing ice sheets forming. Studies of ice forming at nanoscale are adding to our knowledge of water, one of the most important substances on Earth. The sheets are about 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. This is the first time scientists have obtained pictures of ice only a few nanometers thick in the act of forming bulk ice (at the coldest of temperatures).

And I think they look pretty! :-)