Abstract
Sublimation is a fundamental phase transition that has a profound impact on both natural phenomena and advanced manufacturing technologies. Although great strides have been made in the study of ice growth from melt and vapor, little consideration has been given to the effect of sublimation on the morphological features that develop in the ice microstructure. In this experimental study, we demonstrate the effect of vapor pressure on the mesoscopic faceting observed and show that a vapor-pressure-specific wavelength characterizes the periodic features that arise during sublimation. The ability to control the length scale of these features not only provides us with new insights into the mesoscopic roughness of ice crystals, but also presents the potential to exploit this effect in a plethora of applications from comet dating to ice-templated tissue engineering scaffolds.
Highlights
Exploring the physics underpinning sublimation has become vital as the evidence for its impact continues to grow—from the flow of glacial Antarctic ice [1] and optical properties of cirrus clouds [2] to the purification of semiconductor materials [3] and freeze-casting of polymers and ceramics [4]
We demonstrate that the pressure of sublimation chosen can introduce periodic features reflecting the intrinsic crystallography of ice, and affects the time and length scale at which these features arise
This paper has used in situ environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) imaging to establish the effect of water vapor pressure on the mesoscopic ridges that are observed during sublimation of ice crystals grown from melt
Summary
Exploring the physics underpinning sublimation has become vital as the evidence for its impact continues to grow—from the flow of glacial Antarctic ice [1] and optical properties of cirrus clouds [2] to the purification of semiconductor materials [3] and freeze-casting of polymers and ceramics [4]. Sublimation can apply in virtually any solid system, but is most commonly observed in the natural world through ice. At ambient pressures and temperatures, ice exists in a region of the phase diagram where phase transformations between the solid, liquid, and vapor can readily occur, producing vastly different structures depending on the conditions of growth and desorption. Great strides have been made in the study of ice growth from melt and vapor, little consideration has been given to the effect of sublimation on the morphological features that develop in the ice microstructure. The macroscopic morphological development has been extremely well characterized at the millimeter to micrometer scale using optical microscopy, but has resulted in conflicting evidence with some studies reporting an overall rounding of crystals [5] while others demonstrate overall faceting [6]. This technique was first conceived when crystallographic etch pits from sublimation of ice crystals were observed to reflect the intrinsic crystal structure [7] and has since been
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