Kaolin-ironoxide-Hg2Cl2 Nanocomposites for Ice Nucleation and Environmental Remediation

摘要

The phenomenon of ice nucleation is a very common incident, which we experience practically in everyday life in many situations, including change of climate as well as intracellular freezing.1-3 Pure supercooled water freezes homogeneously at ~ ?40 °C without freezing.1 However, heterogeneous nucleation is more common in nature, owing to the ice nucleating substances, including nanoparticles. The remarkable diversity in nucleating compounds makes the mechanism of ice nucleation by ice nucleating particles very complicated.4,5 Much experimental and theoretical research work has been conducted in the last few decades to discover new efficient ice nucleating particles (EINP) and an unequivocal mechanism for ice nucleation efficiency (INE). However, the concept of heterogeneous ice nucleation is reasonably difficult, and the physicochemical intricacy is still a challenge. There are several modes or pathways to achieve heterogeneous ice nucleation, namely, (a) deposition nucleation, (b) immersion freezing, (c) condensation freezing, and (d) contact freezing.6