Ice growth rate: Temperature dependence and effect of heat dissipation

The transformation of liquid water into solid ice is arguably the most important phase transition on Earth. A key aspect of such transformation is the speed with which ice grows once it is nucleated. There are contradictory experimental results as to whether the ice growth rate shows a maximum on cooling. Previous simulation results point to the existence of such a maximum. However, simulations were performed at constant temperature with the aid of a thermostat that dissipates the heat released at the ice-water interface unrealistically fast. Here, we perform simulations of ice growth without any thermostat. Large systems are required to perform these simulations at constant overall thermodynamic conditions (pressure and temperature). We obtain the same growth rate as in previous thermostatted simulations. This implies that the dynamics of ice growth is not affected by heat dissipation. Our results strongly support the experiments predicting the existence of a maximum in the ice growth rate. By using the Wilson-Frenkel kinetic theory, we argue that such maximum is due to a competition between an increasing crystallization thermodynamic driving force and a decreasing molecular mobility on cooling.