Effect of diffusion kinetics on the ice nucleation temperature distribution

Abstract

Abstract The nucleation behavior of water is crucial in many fields, spanning meteorology, glaciology, biology, and astrophysics. We report observations suggesting an effect of diffusion kinetics in water on the heterogeneous immersion/contact mode nucleation temperature distribution of ice. We performed differential scanning calorimetry analyses of repeated freeze/thaw cycles and investigated the effect of several variables on the regularity of the nucleation temperature distributions obtained. We observed that the thawing temperature and residence time above 0 °C affect the width of the measured distributions. We explain the observed phenomena according to the diffusion behavior of an external nucleator. Specifically, conditions of enhanced diffusion of the nucleator translated into broader, more scattered distributions, while conditions of limited diffusion translated into narrower, more regular distributions. Lastly, based on our experimental findings, we propose a theoretical explanation centered on the temperature dependence of diffusion kinetics in water.