Author(s): Thomas O’D. Hanley

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Abstract: There has been a problem in explaining the nucleation of frazil at supercooling of a tenth of a degree or less, when it is well-known that samples of the same water can be supercooled several degrees without nucleation. The problem can be illustrated by a free energy barrier separating the liquid state from the ice state. An experiment has indicated that the activation energy required for surmounting this barrier can be as much as 0.003 electron-volts. I suggest that frazil formation may be initiated by a mechanism other than nucleation. By way of example, one such mechanism which has received much attention from metallurgists is called spinodal decomposition.

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Year: 1975