Ice shows hidden ability to produce electricity when stressed: Study

A recent study reveals that ordinary ice can generate electricity when mechanically stressed—bent, stretched, or twisted—through a phenomenon called flexoelectricity. Unlike piezoelectricity, which requires specific crystal symmetries and was previously thought absent in ice due to the cancellation of water molecule dipoles, flexoelectricity can occur in any material symmetry. The research, conducted by teams from Institut Catala de Nanociencia I Nanotecnologia (ICN2), Xi’an Jiaotong University, and Stony Brook University, demonstrated that bending an ice slab between electrodes produced measurable electric potential across a range of temperatures. This discovery helps explain natural electrical phenomena involving ice, such as lightning generated by charged ice particle collisions in thunderstorms. Furthermore, the study uncovered that at extremely low temperatures (below -171.4°F or -113°C), ice develops a thin ferroelectric surface layer capable of reversible electric polarization, akin to magnetic pole flipping. This indicates ice can produce electricity via two