Ice Nucleation Properties of Oxidized Carbon Nanomaterials.
Heterogeneous ice nucleation is an important process in many fields, particularly atmospheric science, but is still poorly understood. All known inorganic ice nucleating particles are relatively large in size and tend to be hydrophilic. Hence it is not obvious that carbon nanomaterials should nucleate ice. However, in this paper we show that four different readily water-dispersible carbon nanomaterials are capable of nucleating ice. The tested materials were carboxylated graphene nanoflakes, graphene oxide, oxidized single walled carbon nanotubes and oxidized multiwalled carbon nanotubes. The carboxylated graphene nanoflakes have a diameter of ∼30 nm and are among the smallest entities observed so far to nucleate ice. Overall, carbon nanotubes were found to nucleate ice more efficiently than flat graphene species, and less oxidized materials nucleated ice more efficiently than more oxidized species. These well-defined carbon nanomaterials may pave the way to bridging the gap between experimental and computational studies of ice nucleation.
†Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom.
Thomas F
TF
Whale
‡Department of Chemistry, University College London, 20 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0AJ, United Kingdom.
Martin
M
Rosillo-Lopez
†Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom.
Benjamin J
BJ
Murray
‡Department of Chemistry, University College London, 20 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0AJ, United Kingdom.
Christoph G
CG
Salzmann
atmospheric aerosol; carbon nanomaterials; ice; ice nucleation