An Ice Christmas Tree: Fast Three-Dimensional Printing of Ice Structures via Evaporative Cooling in Vacuum

TL;DR

This paper introduces a rapid 3D ice printing method using evaporative cooling in a vacuum, enabling complex ice structures without cryogenic systems, with potential applications in microfluidics, tissue engineering, and space manufacturing.

Contribution

The authors present a novel vacuum-based 3D ice printing technique that achieves instant freezing of water into complex structures without external refrigeration or support materials.

Findings

High-fidelity complex ice structures can be printed rapidly.

The process exploits evaporative cooling and pressure-dependent phase transitions.

The method is scalable and applicable to various fields like microfluidics and space manufacturing.

Abstract

We demonstrate a novel approach to three-dimensional (3D) printing of freeform ice structures by exploiting evaporative cooling. A micrometer-sized water jet is used to 3D print inside a vacuum chamber. The reduced ambient pressure leads to rapid evaporation of the extruded water, extracting latent heat, and quickly cooling the water well below 0 {\deg}C. Once deposited, the water freezes almost instantaneously into stable ice structures. We demonstrate high-fidelity printing of complex geometries (Christmas trees, cones, vertical pillars, and free-standing zigzag structures) without cryogenic infrastructure, supporting materials, or external refrigeration. This approach directly visualizes fundamental thermodynamic principles -- latent heat, evaporative cooling, and pressure-dependent phase transitions -- while offering a relatively simple and scalable platform for ice-templated microfluidics and tissue engineering, or even extraterrestrial 3D printing.