Effect of Diffusion Kinetics on the Ice Nucleation Temperature Distribution

Abstract

The nucleation behavior of water is crucial in many fields, spanning meteorology, glaciology, biology, and astrophysics. We here report observations suggesting an effect of diffusion kinetics in water on the 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 distributions obtained. We intriguingly observed that the thawing temperature and residence time above 0°C affect the width of the measured distributions. Specifically, conditions of enhanced diffusion translated into broader, more scattered distributions, while conditions of limited diffusion translated into narrower, more regular distributions. We propose a theoretical explanation centered on the temperature dependence of diffusion kinetics in water based on our experimental findings.