title: Spontaneous liquid-liquid phase separation of water.
abstract: We report a molecular dynamics simulation demonstrating a fast spontaneous liquid-liquid phase separation of water and a subsequent slow crystallization to ice. It is found that supercooled water separates rapidly into low- and high-density domains so as to reduce the surface energy in the rectangular simulation cell at certain thermodynamic states. The liquid-liquid phase separation, which is about two orders of magnitude faster than the crystallization, suggests a possibility to observe this phenomenon experimentally.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushima-naka, Kitaku, Okayama, 700-8530, Japan.
authors.forename: Takuma
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yagasaki
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushima-naka, Kitaku, Okayama, 700-8530, Japan.
authors.forename: Masakazu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushima-naka, Kitaku, Okayama, 700-8530, Japan.
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tanaka