Some characteristics of ice-nucleation active sites derived from experiments with a ferroelectric substrate

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An experimental investigation on the nature of ice-nucleation active sites on solid nucleants has been carried out using ferroelectric single crystals of barium-titanate. The results of the experiments suggest that the electric “microrelief” (a term first proposed by Distler and his co-workers) provided to nucleation by a substrate is of fundamental importance in determining whether or not this substrate acts as an ice-nucleating surface. This conclusion supports the conclusions of Zettlemoyer and his co-workers and Corrin and his co-workers derived from ice nucleation experiments with silver iodide, the conclusions of Federer derived from ice nucleation experiments with silicon, and the conclusions of Distler and his co-workers derived from nucleation experiments with triglycine sulfate.