Size of Nanoscale Domains in Inhomogeneous Surfaces Determines Ice Nucleation
- Chuanbiao Zhang
Chuanbiao ZhangCollege of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Heze University, Heze 274015, ChinaMore by Chuanbiao Zhang
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- Yanting Wang
Yanting WangCAS Key Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, ChinaSchool of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, ChinaMore by Yanting Wang
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- Jianjun Wang
Jianjun WangKey Laboratory for Green Printing, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Science, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, ChinaSchool of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, ChinaMore by Jianjun Wang
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- Xin Zhou*
Xin Zhou*Email: [email protected]School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, ChinaMore by Xin Zhou
Abstract
The microscopic mechanism of heterogeneous ice nucleation on various material surfaces is essential to controlling the freezing of water for wide applications, but it remains unclear. We investigated the ice nucleation on the inhomogeneous surfaces composed of nanosized hydrophobic and hydrophilic patterns by molecular simulations and found that the ice nucleation preferred a single hydrophobic/hydrophilic pattern rather than crossing over the boundary of neighboring patterns because of the higher free-energy barrier in the latter in comparison with that in the former. Thus, these nanosized patterns behave as effective active domains of ice nucleation only while the size of the patterns is large enough to hold the critical ice nucleus. We further simulated the graphene oxide surfaces which are modeled by an ideal graphene surface by randomly replacing some carbon atoms with oxygen atoms and verified the picture in which the active nucleation regions of graphene oxide surfaces (the pure carbon or oxygen regions) can obviously promote ice nucleation only while the size is sufficiently large. This study indicates the importance of the nanometer-size structure of material surfaces in regulating the heterogeneous ice nucleation.
Cited By
This article is cited by 3 publications.
- Chuanbiao Zhang, Mingzhe Shao, Xin Zhou. Ice Nucleation in Semiconfined Space Enclosed Partially by Nanosized Surfaces. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 2023, 127 (23) , 11338-11345. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.3c02129
- Tianmu Yuan, Ryan S. DeFever, Jiarun Zhou, Ernesto Carlos Cortes-Morales, Sapna Sarupria. RSeeds: Rigid Seeding Method for Studying Heterogeneous Crystal Nucleation. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B 2023, 127 (18) , 4112-4125. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c00910
- Xuanhao Fu, Xin Zhou. Different roles of surfaces’ interaction on lattice mismatched/matched surfaces in facilitating ice nucleation. Chinese Physics B 2023, 32 (2) , 028202. https://doi.org/10.1088/1674-1056/aca202