Intro; Dank; Contents; List of Figures; List of Tables; 1 Introduction; 1.1 Water, a truly anomalous substance; 1.2 State diagram of water; 1.2.1 Crystalline Phases; 1.2.1.1 Ice I: Hexagonal ice Ih, cubic ice Ic and stacking-disordered ice Isd; 1.2.1.2 Ices II, V, IX; 1.2.2 Amorphous states of ice; 1.2.2.1 Low-density amorphous ice (LDA); 1.2.2.2 High-density amorphous ice (HDA); 1.2.2.3 Very high-density amorphous ice (VHDA); 1.3 Phase transitions; 1.3.1 Classification [122-124]; 1.3.2 Homogeneous nucleation [125, 126] and nuclei growth; 1.3.3 Discontinuous transition between LDA/HDA

1.4 Glass transition [125, 138, 139]1.4.1 Glass transitions in water; 1.5 Theories aimed at explaining water's anomalies [47, 48]; 1.6 Experimental challenges
Water's no-man's land; 1.7 Motivation for the present thesis; 2 Methods; 2.1 Dilatometry [166]; 2.1.1 Dilatometric setup [166, 167]; 2.1.2 Sample preparation [167]; 2.2.1 X-ray diffraction setup; 3 Experimental section [167]; 3.1 Preparation of eHDA; 3.1.1 Isothermal compression of hexagonal ice Ih → uHDA; 3.1.2 Preparation of VHDA via isobaric heating of uHDA; 3.1.3 Preparation of eHDA via isothermal decompression of VHDA

3.2 Crystallisation experiments of eHDA3.2.1 Crystallisation of eHDA (first isobaric heating step); 3.2.2 Second isobaric heating step to Tmax and quench recovery; 3.3 Definition of crystallisation temperature Tx; 3.4 Apparatus correction; 3.5 Temperature correction; 3.6 Characterisation of crystallisation products; 3.7 Results of the volumetric crystallisation study of eHDA; 3.8 Results of XRD study of crystallisation products of eHDA; 3.9 Crystallisation / polymorphic transition studies of bulk LDA / Ih; 3.9.1 Preparation of bulk LDA and Ih samples

3.9.2 Isobaric heating experiments of bulk LDA/ice Ih and XRD characterisation4 Discussion [167]; 4.1 Crystallisation of eHDA; 4.2 Comparison of phase transition in the bulk and in nanosized nuclei; 5 Summary [166]; References