But no one had figured out how to make the effect powerful enough for practical use — until now.
Salt stops ice from freezing. REPRESENTATION PIC/GETTY IMAGES
New research suggests that bending ice and adding salt to it could transform it into a potential source of sustainable power. Xin Wen and his team at Xi’an Jiatong University in China discovered that ice is flexoelectric. That means it can generate electricity when bent. Scientists had previously observed faint electrical activity in colliding glaciers or stressed ice sheets. But no one had figured out how to make the effect powerful enough for practical use — until now.
The breakthrough lies in salty ice. In their experiments, the researchers froze water with different amounts of ordinary salt. To measure performance, the team used a three-point bending test. They placed ice on two supports and pushed down from above. This bent the samples, generating electricity. The results were striking. Bending salty ice produced up to 1000 times more electrical charge than pure ice.
Salt stops ice from freezing completely, leaving behind microscopic channels of salty water. When pressure bends the ice, this liquid flows through the channels. Because moving water carries charge, the flow creates what scientists call a streaming current. The scale of the opportunity is significant as ice covers about 10 per cent of Earth’s surface.
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