Synthesis and Applications of Water Nanotubes

Abstract

Characteristics of a material system strongly confined in a certain spatial region with nanometer dimension are not only dependent on the number of atoms (molecules) but rather extremely dependent on the shape and dimensionality of the limited space. This chapter reports that a new tubularshaped ice, referred to as an ice nanotube (ice NT) is formed in the cylindrical cavity of a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) and that the ice NT exhibits an abnormal melting point dependency on the cavity diameter. Possible applications and "exchange transition" found in gas atmosphere are also briefly discussed.