Progress in the structural and physical properties of ice surface

Abstract

Ice, one of the most abundant and well-known materials on earth, plays an important role in many fields, such as interstellar phenomenon, life in cryosphere and global climate. The properties of ice, such as ice phase transition, have received extensive attentions in the past hundred years. However, our understanding of the structure and physical properties of ice surface is still limited. Recently, we have studied the structural and physical properties of ice surface by introducing an order parameter that characterizes the ice surface structure based on the distribution of dangling OH bonds. Our studies show that the ice surface is more ordered than bulk before melting. Our studies also show that the surface structure of ice is directly correlated with the vacancy formation and the adsorption of polar molecules on ice surface. The more inhomogeneous the structure of the ice surface is, the more active the ice surface, that is, vacancies are more likely to form and the polar molecules are easier to be adsorbed on ice surface.