Abstract. We present the laboratory results of immersion freezing efficiencies of
cellulose particles at supercooled temperature (T) conditions. Three types of
chemically homogeneous cellulose samples are used as surrogates that
represent supermicron and submicron ice-nucleating plant structural
polymers. These samples include microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), fibrous
cellulose (FC) and nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC). Our immersion freezing
dataset includes data from various ice nucleation measurement techniques
available at 17 different institutions, including nine dry dispersion
and 11 aqueous suspension techniques. With a total of 20 methods, we
performed systematic accuracy and precision analysis of measurements from
all 20 measurement techniques by evaluating T-binned (1 ∘C)
data over a wide T range (−36 ∘C <T<-4 ∘C). Specifically, we intercompared the geometric surface
area-based ice nucleation active surface site (INAS) density data derived from
our measurements as a function of T, ns,geo(T). Additionally, we also
compared the ns,geo(T) values and the freezing spectral slope parameter
(Δlog(ns,geo)/ΔT) from our measurements to previous
literature results. Results show all three cellulose materials are
reasonably ice active. The freezing efficiencies of NCC samples agree
reasonably well, whereas the diversity for the other two samples spans
≈ 10 ∘C. Despite given uncertainties within each
instrument technique, the overall trend of the ns,geo(T) spectrum traced
by the T-binned average of measurements suggests that predominantly
supermicron-sized cellulose particles (MCC and FC) generally act as more
efficient ice-nucleating particles (INPs) than NCC with about 1 order of
magnitude higher ns,geo(T).