Freezing of few nanometers water droplets

Alireza Hakimian, Mohammadjavad Mohebinia, Masoumeh Nazari, Ali Davoodabadi, Sina Nazifi, Zixu Huang, Jiming Bao and Hadi Ghasemi ()
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Alireza Hakimian: University of Houston
Mohammadjavad Mohebinia: University of Houston
Masoumeh Nazari: University of Houston
Ali Davoodabadi: University of Houston
Sina Nazifi: University of Houston
Zixu Huang: University of Houston
Jiming Bao: University of Houston
Hadi Ghasemi: University of Houston

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Water-ice transformation of few nm nanodroplets plays a critical role in nature including climate change, microphysics of clouds, survival mechanism of animals in cold environments, and a broad spectrum of technologies. In most of these scenarios, water-ice transformation occurs in a heterogenous mode where nanodroplets are in contact with another medium. Despite computational efforts, experimental probing of this transformation at few nm scales remains unresolved. Here, we report direct probing of water-ice transformation down to 2 nm scale and the length-scale dependence of transformation temperature through two independent metrologies. The transformation temperature shows a sharp length dependence in nanodroplets smaller than 10 nm and for 2 nm droplet, this temperature falls below the homogenous bulk nucleation limit. Contrary to nucleation on curved rigid solid surfaces, ice formation on soft interfaces (omnipresent in nature) can deform the interface leading to suppression of ice nucleation. For soft interfaces, ice nucleation temperature depends on surface modulus. Considering the interfacial deformation, the findings are in good agreement with predictions of classical nucleation theory. This understanding contributes to a greater knowledge of natural phenomena and rational design of anti-icing systems for aviation, wind energy and infrastructures and even cryopreservation systems.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27346-w

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