Abstract
Ice recrystallization is of great importance to both fundamental research and practical applications, however understanding and controlling ice recrystallization processes remains challenging. Here, we report the discovery of an ion-specific effect on ice recrystallization. By simply changing the initial type and concentration of ions in an aqueous solution, the size of ice grains after recrystallization can be tuned from 27.4±4.1 to 277.5±30.9 μm. Molecular dynamics simulations show that the ability of the ion to be incorporated into the ice phase plays a key role in the ultimate size of the ice grains after recrystallization. Moreover, by using recrystallized ice crystals as templates, 2D and 3D porous networks with tuneable pore sizes could be prepared from various materials, for example, NaBr, collagen, quantum dots, silver and polystyrene colloids. These porous materials are suitable for a wide range of applications, for example, in organic electronics, catalysis and bioengineering.
Highlights
Ice recrystallization is of great importance to both fundamental research and practical applications, understanding and controlling ice recrystallization processes remains challenging
We find that the size of ice grains after recrystallization can be regulated by more than one order of magnitude by changing the type or concentration of ions in the aqueous solution at the initial stage
We show that ion-specific recrystallized ice crystals can be exploited as a template-based approach for the facile fabrication of various 2D and 3D porous materials, and the pore size can be controlled by regulating the ice grain size via changes in the type and concentration of ions
Summary
Ice recrystallization is of great importance to both fundamental research and practical applications, understanding and controlling ice recrystallization processes remains challenging. We find that the size of ice grains after recrystallization can be regulated by more than one order of magnitude by changing the type or concentration of ions in the aqueous solution at the initial stage. This phenomenon can be understood on the molecular level through molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We show that ion-specific recrystallized ice crystals can be exploited as a template-based approach for the facile fabrication of various 2D and 3D porous materials, and the pore size can be controlled by regulating the ice grain size via changes in the type and concentration of ions. As an alternative to conventional ice templates created via a directional ice growth process, this method provides a different approach to fabricating porous materials[29,30,31,32,33]
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