What happens when you compress water?

[Fred444]

So you have a big metal bucket.

This bucket is so strong nothing can break it.

You have a piston that pushes into the bucket.

This piston is a perfect seal and has up to 100 billion tons of force behind it.

You put water in the bucket and compress it until its say 1mm thick.

What on earth happens?

Does it turn solid?

Does it turn into another element?

[piast9]

5s google for phase diagram of water revealed this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Phase ... _water.svg

So yes, at room temperature at pressure above 1GPa it will eventually turn into solid but I doubt that you can compress it that far as you describe. Find for yourself the density of that VI phase of water then you will know how much it is compressed comparing to regular, liquid water.

[Fred444]

So no matter how much pressure you can put behind itm there is a limit to how far something will compress?

Sorry for the stupid questions here, its somehting that interests me, but I have no idea about.

With basically unlimited pressure available would it turn into a diamond?

[piast9]

The energy required to force the atoms to get closer than certain distance is really enormous so in practical terms it is impossible. Scientist try hard to put deuterium atoms close enough to cause nuclear fusion without much success. So far they know how to do it in the thermonuclear bomb but not in controlled way which would solve the problems with energy sources practically forever.

To make diamond you need carbon atoms not the oxygen and hydrogen. And you cannot obtain carbon by fusion of oxygen and hydrogen even if you were able to compress water enough. Just look at the periodic table of the elements.