Fig. 4: Mechanism of ice sprouting inside the brine film. | Nature Communications

Fig. 4: Mechanism of ice sprouting inside the brine film.

From: Interfacial ice sprouting during salty water droplet freezing

Fig. 4

A Schematic depicting water vapor in humid air condensing on the liquid-air interface of the saturated brine film, decreasing the salt concentration and making the brine film unsaturated. To re-saturate the brine film, ice sprouts and grows on the ice-liquid interface. B Experimental images of ice crystal precipitation on a silver iodide disc. The blue dashed circles mark ice crystals. Yellow arrows indicate ice crystal penetration of the liquid film. Scale bar represents 0.5 mm. C Experimentally measured ice precipitation rate and condensation rate as a function of humidity. The shaded area represents the calculated driving potential for interfacial condensation (−Δg, Eq. (3). Tair and RH represent air temperature and humidity, while Tf represents the copper sink or brine temperature. Error bars display the standard deviations of multiple measurements. D Time-lapse images of ice growth MD simulation. Water molecules are added to the salty water to represent condensation after the salty water system thermally stabilizes at T = 261 K (−12 °C, after 400 ns shown in Fig. 1D). At 450 ns, ice appears, and the newly formed ice (purple color) continues to grow. Scale bar represents 1 nm. E Variation of salt concentration for unfrozen liquid versus time during ice growth. The concentration fluctuates slightly around 16% (saturated concentration at T = −12 °C), further confirming the mechanism. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

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