Tuning ice nucleation with counterions on polyelectrolyte brush surfaces

He, Z., Xie, W. J., Liu, Z., Liu, G., Wang, Z., Gao, Y. Q. and Wang, J. (2016) Tuning ice nucleation with counterions on polyelectrolyte brush surfaces. Science Advances, 2 (6). e1600345. ISSN 2375-2548 doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1600345

Abstract/Summary

Heterogeneous ice nucleation (HIN) on ionic surfaces is ubiquitous in a wide range of atmospheric aerosols and at biological interfaces. Despite its great importance in cirrus cloud formation and cryopreservation of cells, organs, and tissues, it remains unclear whether the ion-specific effect on ice nucleation exists. Benefiting from the fact that ions at the polyelectrolyte brush (PB)/water interface can be reversibly exchanged, we report the effect of ions on HIN on the PB surface, and we discover that the distinct efficiency of ions in tuning HIN follows the Hofmeister series. Moreover, a large HIN temperature window of up to 7.8°C is demonstrated. By establishing a correlation between the fraction of ice-like water molecules and the kinetics of structural transformation from liquid- to ice-like water molecules at the PB/water interface with different counterions, we show that our molecular dynamics simulation analysis is consistent with the experimental observation of the ion-specific effect on HIN.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/65900
Identification Number/DOI	10.1126/sciadv.1600345
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Publisher	American Association for the Advancement of Science
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