Some peculiarities of water freezing at small sub-zero temperatures

TL;DR

This paper explores the kinetics of water freezing at small sub-zero temperatures, highlighting the rarity of spontaneous nucleation in natural environments and the conditions needed for ice formation.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the conditions and surfaces necessary for ice nucleation at near-zero temperatures, challenging previous assumptions about spontaneous freezing.

Findings

Ice nucleation time is extremely long in bulk water at small sub-zero temperatures.

Ice-binding surfaces are generally required for nucleation to occur.

Nucleation can happen at temperatures a few degrees below 0°C, given certain conditions.

Abstract

I consider the kinetics of water freezing and show that, at small sub-zero temperatures, (i) the time of ice nucleation within the bulk water environment is enormous and therefore cannot take place either in lakes of in living cells; (ii) that the ice nucleation needs some ice-binding surfaces to occur, but (iii) even this kind of ice nucleation can take place, as a rule, only at the temperatures that are a few degrees below 0oC. Further, I discuss factors that can drastically reduce the ice nucleation time at nearly-zero temperatures both in open reservoirs, where water contacts with air, and in cells, where there is no such contact.