Understanding Interfacial Ice Premelting: Structure, Adhesion and Nucleation

TL;DR

This study uses computer simulations to analyze interfacial ice premelting, revealing how substrate properties influence film thickness, structure, and nucleation, with implications for understanding ice behavior in various scientific and engineering contexts.

Contribution

It introduces a thermodynamic framework linking premelting film properties to substrate hydrophilicity and pressure, providing predictive models for interfacial ice behavior.

Findings

Premelting occurs on neutral substrates regardless of hydrophilicity.

Film thickness depends on substrate contact angle, with complete premelting at angles below 50°.

A model predicts quasi-liquid layer thickness based on substrate hydrophilicity.

Abstract

In this work, we perform a systematic computer simulation study of ice premelting, and explore the thickness and structure of quasi-liquid layers formed at the interface of ice with substrates of different hydrophilicity. Our study shows that interfacial premelting occurs on neutral substrates of whatever hydrophilicity, forming films of limited thickness for substrates with contact angles larger than ca. 50$^\circ$ but exhibiting complete interfacial premelting at smaller contact angles. Contrary to most experimental studies, we focus not only on the premelting behavior with temperature, but also with pressure, which is a matter of relevance in important situations such as ice friction. Our study is guided within a rigorous framework of surface thermodynamics, demonstrating that the premelting film structure is a function of a single thermodynamic variable. By this token we are able to relate properties measured along an isobar, with premelting films at arbitrary temperature and pressure. We also find that adhesion strength in atomically smooth surfaces is one to two orders of magnitude larger than those found in experiments, and conjecture that the reason is substrate roughness and the presence of organic adsorbents. Our theoretical framework also allows us to exploit our results on interfacial premelting in order to gain insight into heterogeneous ice nucleation. We show that apolar smooth substrates of whatever hydrophilicity are unlikely nucleators, and that too large hydrophilicity conspires also against ice nucleation. Furthermore, we exploit statistical-thermodynamic framework to shed light into the nature of the surface intermolecular forces promoting interfacial premelting, and provide a model to predict quasi-liquid layer thickness as a function of the substrate's hydrophilicity with great potential applications in fields ranging from earth sciences to aircraft engineering.