MOLECULAR STUDIES OF THE ICE-FORMING CAPABILITIES OF DIFFERENT SURFACES.

The objective of the present study was to determine the nature of ice-forming capabilities of different chemical compounds, whose effectiveness is determined by the character of the forces binding water molecules to the surface of the compound. Adsorption layers of water and ammonia on the salts of silver and lead were studied. Dependence between the surface properties and ice-forming capabilities of the chemical compounds were investigated. Direct molecular structural analysis by infrared spectroscopy and nuclear-magnetic resonance were used in those studies. There seem to be two reasonable ways of artificially modifying a surface with the objective of stimulating the water-to-ice phase transition of condensed water: contamination of hydrophobic surface with active centers, which can interact with water molecules; or suppression or removal of part of the active centers of a hydrophilic surface.