Experimental evidence of the ferroelectric phase transition near the $\lambda-$point in liquid water

TL;DR

This study provides experimental evidence of a ferroelectric phase transition near the lambda-point in supercooled liquid water, using dielectric spectroscopy on nano-confined samples, supporting polar liquid models.

Contribution

It presents direct dielectric measurements indicating a ferroelectric phase transition in supercooled water near the lambda-point, validating polar liquid phenomenology.

Findings

Detection of dielectric constant anomalies near the lambda-point

Evidence of second-order ferroelectric phase transition

Supports polar liquid models for water behavior

Abstract

We studied dielectric properties of nano-sized liquid water samples confined in polymerized silicates MCM-41 characterized by the porous sizes \sim 3-10nm. We report the direct measurements of the dielectric constant by the dielectric spectroscopy method at frequencies 25Hz-1MHz and demonstrate clear signatures of the second-order phase transition of ferroelectric nature at temperatures next to the \lambda- point in the bulk supercooled water. The presented results support the previously developed polar liquid phenomenology and hence establish its applicability to model actual phenomena in liquid water.