title: Tuning ice nucleation with counterions on polyelectrolyte brush surfaces.
abstract: Heterogeneous ice nucleation (HIN) on ionic surfaces is ubiquitous in a wide range of atmospheric aerosols and at biological interfaces. Despite its great importance in cirrus cloud formation and cryopreservation of cells, organs, and tissues, it remains unclear whether the ion-specific effect on ice nucleation exists. Benefiting from the fact that ions at the polyelectrolyte brush (PB)/water interface can be reversibly exchanged, we report the effect of ions on HIN on the PB surface, and we discover that the distinct efficiency of ions in tuning HIN follows the Hofmeister series. Moreover, a large HIN temperature window of up to 7.8°C is demonstrated. By establishing a correlation between the fraction of ice-like water molecules and the kinetics of structural transformation from liquid- to ice-like water molecules at the PB/water interface with different counterions, we show that our molecular dynamics simulation analysis is consistent with the experimental observation of the ion-specific effect on HIN.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Green Printing, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Zhiyuan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Wen Jun
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Green Printing, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Zhenqi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Physics, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Guangming
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AX, UK.
authors.forename: Zuowei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Yi Qin
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Green Printing, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Jianjun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000838:Anions; D002412:Cations; D007053:Ice; D000071228:Polyelectrolytes / Q000737:chemistry*; D013499:Surface Properties; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000838:Anions; D002412:Cations; D007053:Ice; D000071228:Polyelectrolytes; D014867:Water
keywords: Counterion; Heterogeneous ice nucleation; Hofmeister effect; Polyelectrolyte brush; interfacial water