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Updated: Jun 11, 2026
08:16
Ice Generation and the Heat and Mass Transfer Phenomena of Introducing Water to a Cold Bath of Brine
Published on: March 13, 2017
Ice crystallization in water's "no-man's land".
Emily B Moore1, Valeria Molinero
1Department of Chemistry, University of Utah, 315 South 1400 East, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-0850, USA.
The Journal of Chemical Physics
|July 2, 2010
Summary
Supercooled liquid water rapidly forms ice nuclei in "no-man's land." Crystallization halts with significant liquid water remaining, forming nanoscopic ice crystals.
Area of Science:
- Physical Chemistry
- Materials Science
- Computational Physics
Background:
- Studying water crystallization in "no-man's land" (around 180 K) is challenging due to rapid ice formation.
- Experimental methods struggle to resolve liquid water structure and its transformation into ice at these low temperatures.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the crystallization process of water at 180 K using molecular dynamics simulations.
- To understand the kinetics and structural evolution of ice nucleation and growth in supercooled water.
Main Methods:
- Large-scale molecular dynamics simulations employing the monatomic water model (mW).
- Analysis of ice nucleation, growth, and consolidation stages.
- Application of the Avrami equation to describe crystallization kinetics.
Main Results:
- Critical ice nuclei form rapidly, faster than liquid water relaxation, indicating poor equilibration.
- Crystallization proceeds in three stages: nucleation/growth, consolidation, and slow growth.
- Ice formation plateaus, leaving 15%-20% liquid water dispersed within nanoscopic ice I crystals (3-10 nm).
Conclusions:
- Supercooled water at 180 K does not fully crystallize, with significant liquid water remaining.
- The nanoscopic size of ice crystallites may lower their melting point and impede further transformation to a stable crystalline state.
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