A laboratory study of the ice nucleating properties of some mineral particulates

Laboratory studies using a microscope cold stage with controlled humidity environment have been carried out on the ice nucleation and preactivation properties of several naturally occurring particulate substances. For initial nucleation water saturation was necessary, but below a critical temperature a constant ice supersaturation (water subsaturation), was sufficient. The values of both temperature and supersaturation depended on the substance. In preactivation the behaviour was similar but with a higher initial and critical temperature. Typical values are : for kaolinite, initial nucleation − 10·5, − 19°C, 20 per cent; preactivation − 6, − 11·5°C, 12 per cent: montmorillonite, − 25, below − 27°C; preactivation − 4, − 13·5°C, 14 per cent. The first temperature gives one ice crystal in 104 particles; the second is critical for nucleation at water subsaturation. The low values of supersaturation required for nucleation suggest that preactivation is caused by the freezing of a supercooled, adsorbed, liquid-like layer, rather than by the retention of ice embryos in cavities. A necessary condition for the measurement of the ice nucleating ability of particles from an air sample is that they must not be heated to a temperature above at least − 5°C or subjected to a relative humidity over ice of less than about 35 per cent before the measurement is made.