The role of structural order in heterogeneous ice nucleation
The freezing of water into ice is a key process that is still not fully understood. It generally requires an impurity of some description to initiate the heterogeneous nucleation of the ice crystals. The molecular structure, as well as the extent of structural order within the impurity in question,...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
The Royal Society of Chemistry
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9067566/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35655890 http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d1sc06338c |
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author | Sosso, Gabriele C. Sudera, Prerna Backes, Anna T. Whale, Thomas F. Fröhlich-Nowoisky, Janine Bonn, Mischa Michaelides, Angelos Backus, Ellen H. G. |
author_facet | Sosso, Gabriele C. Sudera, Prerna Backes, Anna T. Whale, Thomas F. Fröhlich-Nowoisky, Janine Bonn, Mischa Michaelides, Angelos Backus, Ellen H. G. |
author_sort | Sosso, Gabriele C. |
collection | PubMed |
description | The freezing of water into ice is a key process that is still not fully understood. It generally requires an impurity of some description to initiate the heterogeneous nucleation of the ice crystals. The molecular structure, as well as the extent of structural order within the impurity in question, both play an essential role in determining its effectiveness. However, disentangling these two contributions is a challenge for both experiments and simulations. In this work, we have systematically investigated the ice-nucleating ability of the very same compound, cholesterol, from the crystalline (and thus ordered) form to disordered self-assembled monolayers. Leveraging a combination of experiments and simulations, we identify a “sweet spot” in terms of the surface coverage of the monolayers, whereby cholesterol maximises its ability to nucleate ice (which remains inferior to that of crystalline cholesterol) by enhancing the structural order of the interfacial water molecules. These findings have practical implications for the rational design of synthetic ice-nucleating agents. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9067566 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | The Royal Society of Chemistry |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-90675662022-06-01 The role of structural order in heterogeneous ice nucleation Sosso, Gabriele C. Sudera, Prerna Backes, Anna T. Whale, Thomas F. Fröhlich-Nowoisky, Janine Bonn, Mischa Michaelides, Angelos Backus, Ellen H. G. Chem Sci Chemistry The freezing of water into ice is a key process that is still not fully understood. It generally requires an impurity of some description to initiate the heterogeneous nucleation of the ice crystals. The molecular structure, as well as the extent of structural order within the impurity in question, both play an essential role in determining its effectiveness. However, disentangling these two contributions is a challenge for both experiments and simulations. In this work, we have systematically investigated the ice-nucleating ability of the very same compound, cholesterol, from the crystalline (and thus ordered) form to disordered self-assembled monolayers. Leveraging a combination of experiments and simulations, we identify a “sweet spot” in terms of the surface coverage of the monolayers, whereby cholesterol maximises its ability to nucleate ice (which remains inferior to that of crystalline cholesterol) by enhancing the structural order of the interfacial water molecules. These findings have practical implications for the rational design of synthetic ice-nucleating agents. The Royal Society of Chemistry 2022-04-08 /pmc/articles/PMC9067566/ /pubmed/35655890 http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d1sc06338c Text en This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
spellingShingle | Chemistry Sosso, Gabriele C. Sudera, Prerna Backes, Anna T. Whale, Thomas F. Fröhlich-Nowoisky, Janine Bonn, Mischa Michaelides, Angelos Backus, Ellen H. G. The role of structural order in heterogeneous ice nucleation |
title | The role of structural order in heterogeneous ice nucleation |
title_full | The role of structural order in heterogeneous ice nucleation |
title_fullStr | The role of structural order in heterogeneous ice nucleation |
title_full_unstemmed | The role of structural order in heterogeneous ice nucleation |
title_short | The role of structural order in heterogeneous ice nucleation |
title_sort | role of structural order in heterogeneous ice nucleation |
topic | Chemistry |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9067566/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35655890 http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d1sc06338c |
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