2010/12/30 by Kenneth G. Libbrecht, Robert Bell, Libbrecht, Kenneth G. +2 · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Atmospheric aerosols and clouds #Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols #FOS: Physical sciences #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #nanoparticles nucleation surface interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1101.0127
arxiv created 2010/12/30 · openalex publication_date 2010/12/30 · arxiv updated 2011/01/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present an investigation of chemical influences on the growth of ice crystals from water vapor. In one set of experiments, we grew ice crystals in a vapor diffusion chamber, observing crystal morphologies at temperatures from 0 C to -25 C in different background gases and with a variety of gaseous chemical additives. In a second set of experiments, we measured ice crystal growth rates at -5 C and -15 C in a free-fall flow chamber, using normal laboratory air and ultra-clean nitrogen gas, both with and without chemical additives. Conclusions from these experiments include: 1) In nitrogen gas at a pressure of one atmosphere, no tested chemical additives at concentrations below 10 ppm produced any observable changes in ice crystal growth morphologies; 2) Growth in ultra-clean nitrogen gas was not significantly different from growth in ordinary laboratory air; 3) Chemical additives affected plate-like dendritic growth at -15 C more readily than growth at higher temperatures; 4) Chemical additives tended to promote the growth of columnar crystals over plate-like crystals; 5) Ice growth in air, nitrogen, helium, argon, hydrogen, and methane gases at a pressure of one atmosphere yielded essentially the same temperature-dependent crystal morphologies.