Ice nucleation by hydrophobic substrates

Surface-charge-induced orientation of interfacial water suppresses heterogeneous ice nucleation on <i>α</i>-alumina (0001)

“…In addition to ion ad/desorption (Lützenkirchen et al, 2014), the net surface charge of metal oxide surfaces can be tuned by the protonation or deprotonation of hydroxyl groups, which terminate the surface (Covert and Hore, 2016;Geiger, 2009). The pzc for α-Al 2 O 3 (0001) single crystal has been reported to be between pH = 5.3 and 7.3 (Fitts et al, 2005;Franks and Meagher, 2003;Kershner et al, 2004;López Valdivieso et al, 2006;Veeramasuneni et al, 1996;Zhang et al, 2008). We study, using SFG spectroscopy, the structure of the water molecules at the interface with α−Al 2 O 3 (0001) before and after freezing.…”

Ice nucleation efficiency of AgI: review and new insights

“…The importance of lattice match was further questioned when it was detected that the silver iodide surface is mainly hydrophobic with isolated hydrophilic patches. It was then conjectured that these hydrophilic sites, which may be chemical defects, steps in the crystal lattice or hygroscopic contaminants (Corrin and Nelson, 1968;Zettlemoyer et al, 1963), are indeed the locations where ice nucleation occurs rather than perfect faces of AgI crystals. On the other hand, the structures of some of the most efficient ice-nucleating substances closely match the ice lattice.…”

Adsorption of methanol vapor on silver iodide

“…was measured by Moskvitin, Dubinin and Sakharov (1959) with a maximum water adsorption of slightly more than ( Zettlemoyer, Tcheurekdjian and Hosier (1963) assert that the nucleating properties of silver iodide result from the optimum proportion of hydrophilic to hydrophobic sites present on the surface, as determined by the ratio of B.EoT. water to nitrogen surface areas.…”