Fig. 1: Characteristics of salty droplet icing.
From: Interfacial ice sprouting during salty water droplet freezing

A Icing of a pure water droplet (V = 4 μL and Tw = −15 °C). The nucleation/recalescence stage and the freezing stage are clearly shown. B Icing of a salty droplet (V = 4 μL, ω = 9%, and Tw = −15 °C). See Supplementary Movie 1. The boundary between the two stages is not easily recognized. Scale bars for A and B represent 1 mm. C Schematic of salty droplet icing. Ice crystals grow during the entire icing process, and the brine is repelled and concentrated gradually. D Time-lapse snapshots of a salty water icing MD simulation. The system temperature is set to 261 K (T = − 12 °C), and the original concentration of salty water is ω = 9%. The majority of sodium and chloride ions are expelled from the ice front. Scale bar in D represents 1 nm. E Number of icing water molecules (n) and F salt concentration (ω) in the remaining unfrozen liquid as a function of time (t) extracted from the MD simulation. G Salty droplet freezing as observed in a Hele-Shaw cell. The two-dimensional images demonstrate that a concentrated brine exists in the gaps between ice dendrites. Scale bar in G represents 1 mm. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.