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Ice nucleation at the nanoscale probes no man’s land of water

Author

Listed:
  • Tianshu Li

    (George Washington University)

  • Davide Donadio

    (Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10)

  • Giulia Galli

    (University of California, Davis
    University of California, Davis)

Abstract

At a given thermodynamic condition, nucleation events occur at a frequency that scales with the volume of the system. Therefore at the nanoscale, one may expect to obtain supercooled liquids below the bulk homogeneous nucleation temperature. Here we report direct computational evidence that in supercooled water nano-droplets ice nucleation rates are strongly size dependent and at the nanoscale they are several orders of magnitude smaller than in bulk water. Using a thermodynamic model based on classical nucleation theory, we show that the Laplace pressure is partially responsible for the suppression of ice crystallization. Our simulations show that the nucleation rates found for droplets are similar to those of liquid water subject to a pressure of the order of the Laplace pressure within droplets. Our findings aid the interpretation of molecular beam experiments and support the hypothesis of surface crystallization of ice in microscopic water droplets in clouds.

Suggested Citation

  • Tianshu Li & Davide Donadio & Giulia Galli, 2013. "Ice nucleation at the nanoscale probes no man’s land of water," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 4(1), pages 1-6, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:4:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms2918
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2918
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    Cited by:

    1. Alireza Hakimian & Mohammadjavad Mohebinia & Masoumeh Nazari & Ali Davoodabadi & Sina Nazifi & Zixu Huang & Jiming Bao & Hadi Ghasemi, 2021. "Freezing of few nanometers water droplets," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-8, December.
    2. Gang Sun & Hajime Tanaka, 2024. "Surface-induced water crystallisation driven by precursors formed in negative pressure regions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.

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