An international study involving ICN2, at the UAB campus, Xi'an Jiaotong University (Xi'an) and Stony Brook University (New York), has shown for the first time that ordinary ice is a flexoelectric material.

In other words, it can generate electricity when subjected to mechanical deformation. This discovery could have significant implications for the development of future technological devices and help to explain natural phenomena such as the formation of lightning in thunderstorms.

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[–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)
  • 15 comments in c/science@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 29 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    This is actually a pretty neat post.

    I mean this in the most complimentary way, it's something I was previously unaware of, yet as I read thorough it seemed completely intuitive and obvious that this effect would exist!

    I'm a little skeptical about the hype around lighting and material sciences, but I can absolutely understand how this effect can be used in the analysis of atmospheric effects and probably geological effects as well, I imagine!

    My late father who was a lifelong meteorologist with the government of canada would be so fascinated to read about this, and my estranged uncle, a professor or Earth Sciences and a palaioclimatologist with 40+ years under his belt.

    (Holy fuck the conversations uncle & I had over the years, some while completely hammered... That man would drop the most insane science on you alllllllllll day)

    Neat

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  • [–] [S] 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    You were a lucky man to be able to tune into an inspiration like that. (My home town had zero scientists.) As a kid, when I started talking about earth impactors, they'd usually get funny looks on their faces. Then I'd point at the surface of the Moon, and ask if they thought that only it got hit that many times. Silence (heh!)

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Damn I never thought about that, I really was lucky.

    I was not very much into the atmospheric sciences, but I learned enough from my nerd father over many years. My brother was more fascinated with atmospheric sciences.

    Myself, I was more into chemistry and geology, so I gravitated towards my uncle's field. He gave me very interesting crystal formations from his years as a student, I myself have kept them for over 40 years!

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  • This is super neat! Since humans have such a close relationship with water, it’s easy to forget how anomalous of a chemical it is.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    And sugar cubes glow if you break them.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Maybe it can be turned into a piezo driven acousto optic modulator....a self healing one.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    A water based electric drum set?

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    No, more like dull Christmas freezing light blinking entertainment.... Like it might twinkle a light passing through the ice at freezing temperature if you input a sound frequency into the crystal.

    I assume that one could use the ice as a guitar pickup too probably?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Dos this mean ice is piezoelectric? If not what’s the difference?

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago

    I've just been reading up on this now, and it seems that flexoelectricity is distinct from piezoelectricity, but they are related. Flexoelectricity involves the strain a material undergoes — i.e. how much the material deforms — whereas piezoelectricity is about the stress a material experiences. Of course, stress and strain are pretty closely linked — applying stress to a material often induces strain.

    I need to read more about this, but I wonder whether there may be some materials that are piezoelectric but not flexoelectric, and some that are flexoelectric but not piezoelectric, as well as some materials that are both.

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  • 3 comments in c/science@mander.xyz view that post
    [–] 15 points 1 year ago

    Like a quartz crystal. This is a common property of crystals no? Ice is crystalized water.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago

    And you all thought we were melting the ice caps too quickly before!

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    Shit, had we discovered this two decades ago, we might have been able to do something about global warming...

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