Faster Nucleation of Ice at the Three-Phase Contact Line: Influence of Interfacial Chemistry

Abstract

Controlling the nucleation of ice is important in many areas including atmospheric sciences, cryopreservation, food science, and infrastructure protection. Presently, we conduct controlled experiments and analysis to uncover the influence of surface chemistry at the three-phase line on ice nucleation. We show that ice nucleation is faster upon replacing the air at the water−air interface with oils like silicone oil and almond oil. We show via statistically meaningful and carefully designed experiments that ice nucleation occurs at a higher temperature at an aluminum−water−silicone oil (or almond oil) interface as compared to an aluminum−water−air interface. We show that the location of ice nucleation can be controlled (in situations with multiple locations for ice nucleation) by controlling the interfacial chemistry at the three-phase line. We develop a model (which utilizes classical nucleation theory) to study the combined influence of two interfaces on a seed crystal of ice originating at the three-phase contact line. This model can evaluate the thermodynamic competition between nucleation at the three -phase line and heterogeneous nucleation at an interface. The model shows that three-phase contact lines usually result in a higher driving force than heterogeneous nucleation, which speeds up nucleation kinetics. Overall, our experiments and modeling uncover several useful insights into the influence of three-phase lines on nucleation during contact freezing.

Cryopreservation and revival of Hawaiian stony corals using isochoric vitrification

“…Under confinement, the expansion exacts a sizable energetic toll on the nascent ice phase, which has been shown in theory and experiment to both limit the ultimate growth of ice 25 , 26 and reduce the probability of its initial nucleation from arbitrary supercooled aqueous systems 27 – 29 . The closed and confined system also eliminates several other potential sources of nucleation, including interactions with air 28 , 30 , liquid surface instabilities 27 , and three-phase contact lines 31 . Avoiding the nucleation and growth of ice at temperatures between the melting point and the glass transition is the central challenge in facilitating vitrification, and we thus hypothesized that the same suite of physical effects driving ice avoidance in the past decade of high subzero isochoric experiments may also help to facilitate vitrification in isochoric systems 23 .…”

“…However, continuous sample-to-sample monitoring with a pressure transducer is implausible for a real-world banking effort. The high-fidelity transducers required not only add significantly to the cost of each preservation assembly, but also decrease the likelihood of successful vitrification, adding unnecessary additional surface area, material interfaces, opportunities for air entrainment, and thermal gradients to the system (all of which can help to stimulate ice nucleation) 30 , 31 . As such, in the final phase of our experiments, we eliminated the pressure transducer and all active monitoring/electronics from the system, in order to produce a more cryobank-ready preservation tool.…”

Cryopreservation and revival of Hawaiian stony corals via isochoric vitrification

“…However, continuous sample-to-sample monitoring with a pressure transducer is implausible for a real-world banking effort. The high-fidelity transducers required, not only add significantly to the cost of each preservation assembly, but also decrease the likelihood of successful vitrification, adding unnecessary additional surface area, material interfaces, opportunities for air entrainment, and thermal gradients to the system (all of which can help to stimulate ice nucleation) 37,39 . As such, in the final phase of our experiments, we eliminated the pressure transducer and all active monitoring / electronics from the system, in order to produce a more cryobank-ready preservation tool.…”

High-speed cryo-microscopy reveals that ice-nucleating proteins of Pseudomonas syringae trigger freezing at hydrophobic interfaces

“…To capture the location of initial freezing, high-speed cameras have recently been used to study ice nucleation on mineral dust, aluminum plates, and salty aqueous solutions (46)(47)(48)(49). Holden et al (46) located the origins of ice crystal growth on feldspar and quartz surfaces by taking videos with 3000 frames per second during the freezing process.…”

“…Holden et al ( 46 ) located the origins of ice crystal growth on feldspar and quartz surfaces by taking videos with 3000 frames per second during the freezing process. Another study used a high-speed camera to analyze heterogeneous ice nucleation induced by a macroscopic aluminum plate at the three-phase contact line between aluminum, water, and air or oil ( 48 ). Furthermore, high-speed videos have been used to identify the onset of crystal growth at the AWI for acoustically levitated droplets ( 49 ).…”