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The Contribution of Pyroelectricity of AgI Crystals to Ice Nucleation
Author(s) -
Curland Sofia,
Meirzadeh Elena,
Cohen Hagai,
Ehre David,
Maier Joachim,
Lahav Meir,
Lubomirsky Igor
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201802291
Subject(s) - pyroelectricity , nucleation , silver iodide , materials science , icing , ice crystals , chemical physics , chemical engineering , chemistry , ferroelectricity , nanotechnology , dielectric , optics , optoelectronics , organic chemistry , meteorology , physics , engineering , layer (electronics) , silver halide
The pyroelectricity of AgI crystals strongly affects the icing temperature of super‐cooled water, as disentangled from that of epitaxy. This deduction was achieved by the design of polar crystalline ceramic pellets of AgI, with experimentally determined sense of polarity. These pellets are suitable for measuring both their pyroelectric properties as well as the icing temperature of super‐cooled water, separately on each of the expressed Ag + and I − hemihedral surfaces. The positive pyroelectric charge at the silver‐enriched side elevates the icing temperature, whereas the negative charge at the iodide side decreases that temperature. Moreover, the effect of pyroelectric charge remains dominant despite the presence of contaminants on both the silver and the iodide‐enriched surfaces. Consequently an electrochemical process for ice nucleation is suggested, which might be of relevance for understanding the role played by electric charges in heterogeneous icing processes in general.