Ice nucleation by water-soluble macromolecules

Abstract

Abstract. Cloud glaciation is critically important for the global radiation budget (albedo) and for initiation of precipitation. But the freezing of pure water droplets requires cooling to temperatures as low as 235 K. Freezing at higher temperatures requires the presence of an ice nucleator, which is a foreign body in the water that functions as a template for arranging water molecules in an ice-like manner. It is often assumed that these ice nucleators have to be insoluble particles. We put in perspective that also dissolved single macromolecules can induce ice nucleation: they are several nanometers in size, which is also the size range of the necessary critical cluster. As the critical cluster size is temperature-dependent, we see a correlation between the size of such ice nucleating macromolecules and the ice nucleation temperature. Such ice nucleating macromolecules have been already found in many different biological species and are as manifold in their chemistry. Therefore, we additionally compare them to each other, based on a composition of former, recent and yet unpublished studies. Combining these data with calculations from Classical Nucleation Theory, we want to foster a more molecular view of ice nucleation among scientists.