Uncertainty of Heterogeneous Freezing Rate of Water on Muscovite Mica
Student: Pearce Hamilton
Major: Physics
Mentors: Dr. Michael L. Larsen
Department: Physics and Astronomy
Uncertainty of Heterogeneous Freezing Rate of Water on Muscovite Mica
Heterogeneous ice nucleation theory is relevant in atmospheric processes. Here, we investigate the effect of surface cations on the freezing rate of water on muscovite mica surfaces. Freshly cleaved mica has K+ ions exposed on its surface; we exchanged some of these K+ ions with bivalent and trivalent ions and found that freezing events occurred at higher temperatures in the presence of ions of higher valency. Typical experiments only involve a few freezing measurements, so uncertainties are hard to characterize. In this work, computational simulations were carried out to quantify the statistical reliability of the estimated freezing rates. Results reveal a surprisingly low uncertainty in freezing rate estimation, sufficient to conclude that the valency of surface ions on mica has an impact on the ice nucleation process.