scholarly journals Hydrogen polarity of interfacial water regulates heterogeneous ice nucleation

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 258-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingzhe Shao ◽  
Chuanbiao Zhang ◽  
Chonghai Qi ◽  
Chunlei Wang ◽  
Jianjun Wang ◽  
...  

Hydrogen polarity of interfacial water regulates heterogeneous ice nucleation.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Abdelmonem ◽  
Ellen H. G. Backus ◽  
Nadine Hoffmann ◽  
M. Alejandra Sánchez ◽  
Jenée D. Cyran ◽  
...  

Abstract. Surface charge is one of the surface properties of atmospheric aerosols, which has been linked to heterogeneous ice-nucleation and hence cloud formation, microphysics and optical properties. Despite the importance of surface charge for ice nucleation, many questions remain on the molecular-level mechanisms at work. Here, we combine droplet freezing assay studies with vibrational sum frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy to correlate interfacial water structure to surface nucleation strength. We study immersion freezing of aqueous solutions of various pHs on the atmospherically relevant aluminum oxide α-Al2O3 (0001) surface using an isolated droplet on the surface . The high pH solutions freeze at temperatures higher than that of the low pH solution while the neutral pH has the highest freezing temperature. On the molecular level, the SFG spectrum of the interfacial water changes substantially upon freezing. At all pHs, crystallization leads to a reduction of intensity of the 3400 cm−1 water resonance, while the 3200 cm−1 intensity drops for low pH but increases for neutral and high pHs. We find that charge-induced surface templating suppresses nucleation, irrespective of the sign of the surface charge. Heterogeneous nucleation is most efficient for the nominally neutral surface.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (12) ◽  
pp. 7827-7837 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Abdelmonem ◽  
Ellen H. G. Backus ◽  
Nadine Hoffmann ◽  
M. Alejandra Sánchez ◽  
Jenée D. Cyran ◽  
...  

Abstract. Surface charge is one of the surface properties of atmospheric aerosols, which has been linked to heterogeneous ice nucleation and hence cloud formation, microphysics, and optical properties. Despite the importance of surface charge for ice nucleation, many questions remain on the molecular-level mechanisms at work. Here, we combine droplet-freezing assay studies with vibrational sum frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy to correlate interfacial water structure to surface nucleation strength. We study immersion freezing of aqueous solutions of various pHs on the atmospherically relevant aluminum oxide α-Al2O3 (0001) surface using an isolated droplet on the surface. The high-pH solutions freeze at temperatures higher than that of the low-pH solution, while the neutral pH has the highest freezing temperature. On the molecular level, the SFG spectrum of the interfacial water changes substantially upon freezing. At all pHs, crystallization leads to a reduction of intensity of the 3400 cm−1 water resonance, while the 3200 cm−1 intensity drops for low pH but increases for neutral and high pHs. We find that charge-induced surface templating suppresses nucleation, irrespective of the sign of the surface charge. Heterogeneous nucleation is most efficient for the nominally neutral surface.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. eaat9825 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuwang Wu ◽  
Zhiyuan He ◽  
Jinger Zang ◽  
Shenglin Jin ◽  
Zuowei Wang ◽  
...  

Establishing a direct correlation between interfacial water and heterogeneous ice nucleation (HIN) is essential for understanding the mechanism of ice nucleation. Here, we study the HIN efficiency on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) surfaces with different densities of hydroxyl groups. We find that the HIN efficiency increases with the decreasing hydroxyl group density. By explicitly considering that interfacial water molecules of PVA films consist of “tightly bound water,” “bound water,” and “bulk-like water,” we reveal that bulk-like water can be correlated directly to the HIN efficiency of surfaces. As the density of hydroxyl groups decreases, bulk-like water molecules can rearrange themselves with a reduced energy barrier into ice due to the diminishing constraint by the hydroxyl groups on the PVA surface. Our study not only provides a new strategy for experimentally controlling the HIN efficiency but also gives another perspective in understanding the mechanism of ice nucleation.


2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (19) ◽  
pp. 5081-5091 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Marcolli ◽  
S. Gedamke ◽  
T. Peter ◽  
B. Zobrist

Abstract. A differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) was used to explore heterogeneous ice nucleation of emulsified aqueous suspensions of two Arizona test dust (ATD) samples with particle diameters of nominally 0–3 and 0–7 μm, respectively. Aqueous suspensions with ATD concentrations of 0.01–20 wt% have been investigated. The DSC thermograms exhibit a homogeneous and a heterogeneous freezing peak whose intensity ratios vary with the ATD concentration in the aqueous suspensions. Homogeneous freezing temperatures are in good agreement with recent measurements by other techniques. Depending on ATD concentration, heterogeneous ice nucleation occurred at temperatures as high as 256 K or down to the onset of homogeneous ice nucleation (237 K). For ATD-induced ice formation Classical Nucleation Theory (CNT) offers a suitable framework to parameterize nucleation rates as a function of temperature, experimentally determined ATD size, and emulsion droplet volume distributions. The latter two quantities serve to estimate the total heterogeneous surface area present in a droplet, whereas the suitability of an individual heterogeneous site to trigger nucleation is described by the compatibility function (or contact angle) in CNT. The intensity ratio of homogeneous to heterogeneous freezing peaks is in good agreement with the assumption that the ATD particles are randomly distributed amongst the emulsion droplets. The observed dependence of the heterogeneous freezing temperatures on ATD concentrations cannot be described by assuming a constant contact angle for all ATD particles, but requires the ice nucleation efficiency of ATD particles to be (log)normally distributed amongst the particles. Best quantitative agreement is reached when explicitly assuming that high-compatibility sites are rare and that therefore larger particles have on average more and better active sites than smaller ones. This analysis suggests that a particle has to have a diameter of at least 0.1 μm to exhibit on average one active site.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (20) ◽  
pp. 15437-15450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Hummel ◽  
Corinna Hoose ◽  
Bernhard Pummer ◽  
Caroline Schaupp ◽  
Janine Fröhlich-Nowoisky ◽  
...  

Abstract. Primary ice formation, which is an important process for mixed-phase clouds with an impact on their lifetime, radiative balance, and hence the climate, strongly depends on the availability of ice-nucleating particles (INPs). Supercooled droplets within these clouds remain liquid until an INP immersed in or colliding with the droplet reaches its activation temperature. Only a few aerosol particles are acting as INPs and the freezing efficiency varies among them. Thus, the fraction of supercooled water in the cloud depends on the specific properties and concentrations of the INPs. Primary biological aerosol particles (PBAPs) have been identified as very efficient INPs at high subzero temperatures, but their very low atmospheric concentrations make it difficult to quantify their impact on clouds. Here we use the regional atmospheric model COSMO–ART to simulate the heterogeneous ice nucleation by PBAPs during a 1-week case study on a domain covering Europe. We focus on three highly ice-nucleation-active PBAP species, Pseudomonas syringae bacteria cells and spores from the fungi Cladosporium sp. and Mortierella alpina. PBAP emissions are parameterized in order to represent the entirety of bacteria and fungal spores in the atmosphere. Thus, only parts of the simulated PBAPs are assumed to act as INPs. The ice nucleation parameterizations are specific for the three selected species and are based on a deterministic approach. The PBAP concentrations simulated in this study are within the range of previously reported results from other modeling studies and atmospheric measurements. Two regimes of PBAP INP concentrations are identified: a temperature-limited and a PBAP-limited regime, which occur at temperatures above and below a maximal concentration at around −10 ∘C, respectively. In an ensemble of control and disturbed simulations, the change in the average ice crystal concentration by biological INPs is not statistically significant, suggesting that PBAPs have no significant influence on the average state of the cloud ice phase. However, if the cloud top temperature is below −15 ∘C, PBAP can influence the cloud ice phase and produce ice crystals in the absence of other INPs. Nevertheless, the number of produced ice crystals is very low and it has no influence on the modeled number of cloud droplets and hence the cloud structure.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 6495-6509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karoliina Ignatius ◽  
Thomas B. Kristensen ◽  
Emma Järvinen ◽  
Leonid Nichman ◽  
Claudia Fuchs ◽  
...  

Abstract. There are strong indications that particles containing secondary organic aerosol (SOA) exhibit amorphous solid or semi-solid phase states in the atmosphere. This may facilitate heterogeneous ice nucleation and thus influence cloud properties. However, experimental ice nucleation studies of biogenic SOA are scarce. Here, we investigated the ice nucleation ability of viscous SOA particles. The SOA particles were produced from the ozone initiated oxidation of α-pinene in an aerosol chamber at temperatures in the range from −38 to −10 °C at 5–15 % relative humidity with respect to water to ensure their formation in a highly viscous phase state, i.e. semi-solid or glassy. The ice nucleation ability of SOA particles with different sizes was investigated with a new continuous flow diffusion chamber. For the first time, we observed heterogeneous ice nucleation of viscous α-pinene SOA for ice saturation ratios between 1.3 and 1.4 significantly below the homogeneous freezing limit. The maximum frozen fractions found at temperatures between −39.0 and −37.2 °C ranged from 6 to 20 % and did not depend on the particle surface area. Global modelling of monoterpene SOA particles suggests that viscous biogenic SOA particles are indeed present in regions where cirrus cloud formation takes place. Hence, they could make up an important contribution to the global ice nucleating particle budget.


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