Molecular Insight into the Slipperiness of Ice

Two-dimensional bilayer ice in coexistence with three-dimensional ice without confinement

Icing plays an important role in various physical-chemical process. Although the formation of two-dimensional ice requires nanoscale confinement, two-dimensional bilayer ice in coexistence with three-dimensional ice without confinement remains poorly understood. Here, a critical value of a surface energy parameter is identified to characterize the liquid-solid interface interaction, above which two-dimensional and three-dimensional coexisting ice can surprisingly form on the surface. The two-dimensional ice growth mechanisms could be revealed by capturing the growth and merged of the metastable edge structures. The phase diagram about temperature and pressure vs energy parameters is predicted to distinguish liquid water, two-dimensional ice and three-dimensional ice. Furthermore, the deicing characteristics of coexisting ice demonstrate that the ice adhesion strength is linearly related to the ratio of ice-surface interaction energy to ice temperature. In addition, for gas-solid phase transition, the phase diagram about temperature and energy parameters is predicted to distinguish gas, liquid water, two-dimensional ice and three-dimensional ice. This work gives a perspective for studying the singular structure and dynamics of ice in nanoscale and provides a guide for future experimental realization of the coexisting ice.

Ion-specific ice provides a facile approach for reducing ice friction

HYPOTHESIS

Ice friction plays a crucial role in both basic study and practical use. Various strategies for controlling ice friction have been developed. However, one unsolved puzzle regarding ice friction is the effect of ion-ice interplay on its tribological properties.

EXPERIMENTS AND SIMULATIONS

Here, we conducted ice friction experiments and summarized the specific effects of hydrated ions on ice friction. By selecting cations and anions, the coefficient of ice friction can be reduced by more than 70 percent. Experimental spectra, low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR), density functional theory (DFT) calculations, and Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations demonstrated that the addition of ions could break the H-bonds in water.

FINDINGS

The link between the charge density of ions and the coefficients of ice friction was revealed. A part of the ice structure was changed from an ice-like to a liquid-like interfacial water structure with the addition of ions. Lower charge density ions led to weaker ionic forces with the water molecules in the immobilized water layer, resulting in free water molecules increasing in the lubricating layer. This study provides guidance for preparing ice-making solutions with low friction coefficients and a fuller understanding of the interfacial water structure at low temperatures.

In-layer inhomogeneity of molecular dynamics in quasi-liquid layers of ice

Quasi-liquid layers (QLLs) are present on the surface of ice and play a significant role in its distinctive chemical and physical properties. These layers exhibit considerable heterogeneity across different scales ranging from nanometers to millimeters. Although the formation of partially ice-like structures has been proposed, the molecular-level understanding of this heterogeneity remains unclear. Here, we examined the heterogeneity of molecular dynamics on QLLs based on molecular dynamics simulations and machine learning analysis of the simulation data. We demonstrated that the molecular dynamics of QLLs do not comprise a mixture of solid- and liquid water molecules. Rather, molecules having similar behaviors form dynamical domains that are associated with the dynamical heterogeneity of supercooled water. Nonetheless, molecules in the domains frequently switch their dynamical state. Furthermore, while there is no observable characteristic domain size, the long-range ordering strongly depends on the temperature and crystal face. Instead of a mixture of static solid- and liquid-like regions, our results indicate the presence of heterogeneous molecular dynamics in QLLs, which offers molecular-level insights into the surface properties of ice.

Fundamental, mechanism and development of hydration lubrication: From bio-inspiration to artificial manufacturing

Friction and lubrication are ubiquitous in all kinds of movements and play a vital role in the smooth operation of production machinery. Water is indispensable both in the lubrication systems of natural organisms and in hydration lubrication systems. There exists a high degree of similarity between these systems, which has driven the development of hydration lubrication from biomimetic to artificial manufacturing. In particular, significant advancements have been made in the understanding of the mechanisms of hydration lubrication over the past 30 years. This enhanced understanding has further stimulated the exploration of biomimetic inspiration from natural hydration lubrication systems, to develop novel artificial hydration lubrication systems that are cost-effective, easily transportable, and possess excellent capability. This review summarizes the recent experimental and theoretical advances in the understanding of hydration-lubrication processes. The entire paper is divided into three parts. Firstly, surface interactions relevant to hydration lubrication are discussed, encompassing topics such as hydrogen bonding, hydration layer, electric double layer force, hydration force, and Stribeck curve. The second part begins with an introduction to articular cartilage in biomaterial lubrication, discussing its compositional structure and lubrication mechanisms. Subsequently, three major categories of bio-inspired artificial manufacturing lubricating material systems are presented, including hydrogels, polymer brushes (e.g., neutral, positive, negative and zwitterionic brushes), hydration lubricant additives (e.g., nano-particles, polymers, ionic liquids), and their related lubrication mechanism is also described. Finally, the challenges and perspectives for hydration lubrication research and materials development are presented.

Slip of a liquid crystal droplet rotator in viscous fluids

Microscale flow plays an important role in several areas, including microbiological systems and microfluidic devices. These systems are often placed in viscous or complex fluids such as polymer solutions. Understanding microscale flow in viscous fluids will lead to a further development of microfluidic devices and elucidation of the collective motion of microorganisms. We studied the microscale flow induced by the optically driven rotation of a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) droplet in an aqueous glycerol solution. The rotation of the droplets was controlled using circularly polarized optical tweezers. In water, the induced flow agrees well with the theoretical flow assuming a solid rotating particle and a no-slip boundary condition. However, the induced flow velocity deviated from the theoretical value as the viscosity of the glycerol solution increased. This deviation was mainly due to slip on the droplet surface. As an application of the NLC rotator, the viscosity of the solutions and the hydrodynamic interactions between the two rotating particles were measured.

Confinement enhanced viscosity vs shear thinning in lubricated ice friction

The ice surface is known for presenting a very small kinetic friction coefficient, but the origin of this property remains highly controversial to date. In this work, we revisit recent computer simulations of ice sliding on atomically smooth substrates, using newly calculated bulk viscosities for the TIP4P/ice water model. The results show that spontaneously formed premelting films in static conditions exhibit an effective viscosity that is about twice the bulk viscosity. However, upon approaching sliding speeds in the order of m/s, the shear rate becomes very large, and the viscosities decrease by several orders of magnitude. This shows that premelting films can act as an efficient lubrication layer despite their small thickness and illustrates an interesting interplay between confinement enhanced viscosities and shear thinning. Our results suggest that the strongly thinned viscosities that operate under the high speed skating regime could largely reduce the amount of frictional heating.

Ice-Inspired Polymeric Slippery Surface with Excellent Smoothness, Stability, and Antifouling Properties

Ice is omnipresent in our daily life and possesses intrinsic slipperiness as a result of the formation of a quasi-liquid layer. Thus, the functional surfaces inspired by ice show great prospects in widespread fields from surface lubrication to antifouling coatings. Herein, we report an ice-inspired polymeric slippery surface (II-PSS) constructed by a self-lubricating liquid layer and a densely surface-grafted polymer brush. The polymer brush layer could act as a homogeneous matrix to capture lubricant molecules via strong and dynamic dipole-dipole interactions to form a stable quasi-liquid layer that resembles the ice surface. The II-PSS can be easily fabricated on various solid substrates (e.g., silicon, glass, aluminum oxide, plastics, etc.) with excellent smoothness (roughness of ∼0.4 nm), optical transmittance (∼94.5%), as well as repellence toward diverse liquids with different surface tensions (22.3-72.8 mN m-1), pH values (1-14), salinity, and organic pollutants. Further investigation shows that the II-PSS exhibits extremely low attachment for proteins and marine organisms (e.g., algae and mussels) for over one month. These results demonstrate a robust and promising strategy for high-performance antifouling coatings.

Temperature-pressure phase diagram of confined monolayer water/ice at first-principles accuracy with a machine-learning force field

Understanding the phase behaviour of nanoconfined water films is of fundamental importance in broad fields of science and engineering. However, the phase behaviour of the thinnest water film - monolayer water - is still incompletely known. Here, we developed a machine-learning force field (MLFF) at first-principles accuracy to determine the phase diagram of monolayer water/ice in nanoconfinement with hydrophobic walls. We observed the spontaneous formation of two previously unreported high-density ices, namely, zigzag quasi-bilayer ice (ZZ-qBI) and branched-zigzag quasi-bilayer ice (bZZ-qBI). Unlike conventional bilayer ices, few inter-layer hydrogen bonds were observed in both quasi-bilayer ices. Notably, the bZZ-qBI entails a unique hydrogen-bonding network that consists of two distinctive types of hydrogen bonds. Moreover, we identified, for the first time, the stable region for the lowest-density [Formula: see text] monolayer ice (LD-48MI) at negative pressures (<-0.3 GPa). Overall, the MLFF enables large-scale first-principle-level molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of the spontaneous transition from the liquid water to a plethora of monolayer ices, including hexagonal, pentagonal, square, zigzag (ZZMI), and hexatic monolayer ices. These findings will enrich our understanding of the phase behaviour of the nanoconfined water/ices and provide a guide for future experimental realization of the 2D ices.

Self-diffusion and shear viscosity for the TIP4P/Ice water model

With an ever-increasing interest in water properties, many intermolecular force fields have been proposed to describe the behavior of water. Unfortunately, good models for liquid water usually cannot provide simultaneously an accurate melting point for ice. For this reason, the TIP4P/Ice model was developed for targeting the melting point and has become the preferred choice for simulating ice at coexistence. Unfortunately, available data for its dynamic properties in the liquid state are scarce. Therefore, we demonstrate a series of simulations aimed at the calculation of transport coefficients for the TIP4P/Ice model over a large range of thermodynamic conditions, ranging from T = 245 K to T = 350 K, for the temperature, and from p = 0 to p = 500 MPa, for the pressure. We have found that the self-diffusion (shear viscosity) exhibits smaller (increased) values than TIP4P/2005 and experiments. However, rescaling the temperature with respect to the triple point temperature, as in a corresponding states plot, we find that TIP4P/Ice compares very well with TIP4P/2005 and experiment. Such observations allow us to infer that despite the different original purposes of these two models examined here, one can benefit from a vast number of reports regarding the behavior of transport coefficients for the TIP4P/2005 model and utilize them following the routine described in this paper.

Why Teflon is so slippery while other polymers are not

Polytetrafluoroethylene [PTFE (Teflon)] is a uniquely slippery polymer, with a coefficient of friction that is an order of magnitude lower than that of other polymers. Though known as nonsticky, PTFE leaves a layer of material behind on the substrate while sliding. Here, we use contact-sensitive fluorescent probes to image the sliding contact in situ: We show that slip happens at an internal PTFE-PTFE interface that has an unusually low shear strength of 0.8 MPa. This weak internal interface directly leads to low friction and enables transfer of the PTFE film to the substrate even in the absence of strong adhesion.

A new mechanism of the interfacial water film dominating low ice friction

It is generally accepted that ice is slippery due to an interfacial water film wetting the ice surface. Despite the current progress in research, the mechanism of low ice friction is not clear, and especially little is known about the behavior of this surface water film under shear and how the sheared interfacial water film influences ice friction. In our work, we investigated the ordering and diffusion coefficient of the interfacial water film and the friction of ice sliding on an atomically smooth solid substrate at the atomic level using molecular dynamics simulations. There are two layers of water molecules at the ice-solid interface that exhibit properties very different from bulk ice. The ice-adjacent water layer is ice-like, and the solid-adjacent water layer is liquid-like. This liquid-like layer behaves in the manner of "confined water," with high viscosity while maintaining fluidity, leading to the slipperiness of the ice. Furthermore, we found that the interfacial water exhibits shear thinning behavior, which connects the structure of the interfacial water film to the coefficient of friction of the ice surface. We propose a new ice friction mechanism based on shear thinning that is applicable to this interfacial water film structure.

Polar bear paw pad surface roughness and its relevance to contact mechanics on snow

Microscopic papillae on polar bear paw pads are considered adaptations for increased friction on ice/snow, yet this assertion is based on a single study of one species. The lack of comparative data from species that exploit different habitats renders the ecomorphological associations of papillae unclear. Here, we quantify the surface roughness of the paw pads of four species of bear over five orders of magnitude by calculating their surface roughness power spectral density. We find that interspecific variation in papillae base diameter can be explained by paw pad width, but that polar bear paw pads have 1.5 times taller papillae and 1.3 times more true surface area than paw pads of the American black bear and brown bear. Based on friction experiments with three-dimensional printed model surfaces and snow, we conclude that these factors increase the frictional shear stress of the polar bear paw pad on snow by a factor of 1.3-1.5 compared with the other species. Absolute frictional forces, however, are estimated to be similar among species once paw pad area is accounted for, suggesting that taller papillae may compensate for frictional losses resulting from the relatively smaller paw pads of polar bears compared with their close relatives.

Investigating the quasi-liquid layer on ice surfaces: a comparison of order parameters

Ice surfaces are characterized by pre-melted quasi-liquid layers (QLLs), which mediate both crystal growth processes and interactions with external agents. Understanding QLLs at the molecular level is necessary to unravel the mechanisms of ice crystal formation. Computational studies of the QLLs heavily rely on the accuracy of the methods employed for identifying the local molecular environment and arrangements, discriminating between solid-like and liquid-like water molecules. Here we compare the results obtained using different order parameters to characterize the QLLs on hexagonal ice (Ih) and cubic ice (Ic) model surfaces investigated with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in a range of temperatures. For the classification task, in addition to the traditional Steinhardt order parameters in different flavours, we select an entropy fingerprint and a deep learning neural network approach (DeepIce), which are conceptually different methodologies. We find that all the analysis methods give qualitatively similar trends for the behaviours of the QLLs on ice surfaces with temperature, with some subtle differences in the classification sensitivity limited to the solid-liquid interface. The thickness of QLLs on the ice surface increases gradually as the temperature increases. The trends of the QLL size and of the values of the order parameters as a function of temperature for the different facets may be linked to surface growth rates which, in turn, affect crystal morphologies at lower vapour pressure. The choice of the order parameter can be therefore informed by computational convenience except in cases where a very accurate determination of the liquid-solid interface is important.

Nanotechnology in the Olympic Winter Games and Beyond

Modern Olympics have increasingly benefited from the advancement of materials science. From February 4 to March 13, 2022, the whole world has witnessed spectacular Olympic Winter Games and Winter Paralympic Games held in Beijing, during which nanotechnologies are extensively applied and play indispensable roles in many aspects. Although these nanotechnologies appear in a very small length scale, they have provided tremendous support to all athletes with the pursuit of "faster, higher, stronger". In this Article, we highlight several representative nanotechnologies applied in the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games including nanoscience in ice skating, wearable monitoring devices, skiing sports equipment, winter protection, and Olympic printing and discuss their physicochemical principles, unique significance for athletes and sports.

Scratch-Healing Behavior of Ice by Local Sublimation and Condensation

We show that the surface of ice is scratch healing: micrometer-deep scratches in the ice surface spontaneously disappear by thermal relaxation on the time scale of roughly an hour. Following the dynamics and comparing it to different mass transfer mechanisms, we find that sublimation from and condensation onto the ice surface is the dominant scratch-healing mechanism. The scratch-healing kinetics shows a strong temperature dependence, following an Arrhenius behavior with an activation energy of ΔE = 58.6 ± 4.6 kJ/mol, agreeing with the proposed sublimation mechanism and at odds with surface diffusion or fluid flow or evaporation-condensation from a quasi-liquid layer.

Surface Hierarchy: Macroscopic and Microscopic Design Elements for Improved Sliding on Ice

Frictional interaction with a surface will depend on the features and topography within the contact zone. Describing this interaction is particularly complex when considering ice friction, which needs to look at both the macroscopic and microscopic levels. Since Leonardo da Vinci shared his findings that roughness increases friction, emphasis has been placed on measuring surface coarseness, neglecting the contact area. Here, a profilometer was used to measure the contact area at different slicing depths and identify contact points. Metal blocks were polished to a curved surface to reduce the contact area; further reduced by milling 400 µm grooves or laser-micromachining grooves with widths of 50 µm, 100 µm, and 150 µm. Sliding speed was measured on an inclined ice track. Asperities from pileup reduced sliding speed, but a smaller contact area from grooves and a curved sliding surface increased sliding speed. An analysis of sliding speed versus contact area from incremental slicing depths showed that a larger asperity contact surface pointed to faster sliding, but an increase in the polished surface area reduced sliding. As such, analysis of the surface at different length scales has revealed different design elements—asperities, grooves, curved zones—to alter the sliding speed on ice.

Control of Proton-Conductive Behavior with Nanoenvironment within Metal-Organic Materials

Solid-state proton-conductive materials have been of great interest for several decades due to their promising application as electrolytes in fuel cells and electrochemical devices. Metal-organic materials (MOMs) have recently been intensively investigated as a new type of proton-conductive materials. The highly crystalline nature and structural designability of MOMs make them advantageous over conventional noncrystalline proton-conductive materials-the detailed investigation of the structure-property relationship is feasible on MOM-based proton conductors. This review aims to summarize and examine the fundamental principles and various design strategies on proton-conductive MOMs, and shed light on the nanoconfinement effects as well as the importance of hydrophobicity on specific occasions, which have been often disregarded. Besides, challenges and future prospects on this field are presented.

Localization model description of the interfacial dynamics of crystalline Cu and [Formula: see text] metallic glass nanoparticles

Many of the special properties of nanoparticles (NPs) and nanomaterials broadly derive from the significant fraction of particles (atoms, molecules or segments of polymeric molecules) in the NP interfacial region in which the interparticle interactions are characteristically highly anharmonic in comparison to the bulk material. This leads to relatively large mean square particle displacements relative to the material interior, often resulting in a strong increase interfacial mobility and reactivity in both crystalline and glass NPs. The 'Debye-Waller factor', or the mean square particle displacement [Formula: see text] on a ps 'caging' timescale relative to the square of the average interparticle distance [Formula: see text], provides an often experimentally accessible measure of the strength of this anharmonic interaction. The Localization Model (LM) of the dynamics of condensed materials relates this thermodynamic property to the structural relaxation time [Formula: see text], determined from the intermediate scattering function, without any free parameters. Moreover, the LM allows for the prediction of the diffusion coefficient D when combined with the 'decoupling' or Fractional Stokes-Einstein relation linking [Formula: see text] to D. In the current study, we employed classical molecular dynamics simulation to investigate the structural relaxation and diffusion of model [Formula: see text] metallic glass and Cu crystalline NPs with different sizes. As with previous studies validating the LM on model bulk and crystalline materials, and for the interfacial dynamics of thin crystalline and metallic glass films, we find the LM model also describes the interfacial dynamics of model crystalline metal (Cu) and metallic glass ([Formula: see text] NPs to a good approximation, further confirming the generality of the model.

Dry ice hoverboard: Friction reduction by the Leidenfrost effect

Friction reduction is a major issue in multiple domains, and lubrication is often used in order to achieve it. Gas lubrication is a very efficient way to increase slipperiness, reducing the friction coefficient to almost zero. The main challenge with gas lubrication is to keep the gas inside the contact area due to the fact that it is easily squeezed out because of its low viscosity. Here we use the Leidenfrost effect to form a lubricating gas layer in between a disk of dry ice and a substrate, thus leading to lubricated friction. The gas is continuously provided by sublimation due to the temperature difference between dry ice and substrate. We perform different experiments on dry ice, measuring friction and parameters inside the gas layer. We then chart the crossover from high to low friction as a function of pressure and temperature, and we reveal the role of gas layer thickness. The substrate temperature and macroscopic pressure are found to strongly affect the friction, and very low friction is reached only in particular conditions. These conditions are easily controlled through external parameters, which allows us to use the Leidenfrost effect to efficiently modify friction.

Ice-Inspired Superlubricated Electrospun Nanofibrous Membrane for Preventing Tissue Adhesion

Inspired by the superlubricated surface (SLS) of ice, which consists of an ultrathin and contiguous layer of surface-bound water, we built a SLS on the polycaprolactone (PCL)/poly(2-methacryloxyethylphosphorylcholine) (PMPC) composite nanofibrous membrane via electrospinning under controlled relative humidity (RH). The zwitterionic PMPC on the nanofiber provided a surface layer of bound water, thus generating a hydration lubrication surface. Prepared under 20% RH, electrospun PCL/PMPC nanofibers reached a minimum coefficient of friction (COF) of about 0.12 when the weight ratio of PMPC to PCL was 0.1. At a higher RH, a SLS with an ultralow COF of less than 0.05 was formed on the composite nanofibers. The high stability of the SLS hydration layer on the engineered nanofibrous membrane effectively inhibited fibroblast adhesion and markedly reduced tissue adhesion during tendon repair in vivo. This work demonstrates the great potential of this ice-inspired SLS approach in tissue adhesion-prevention applications.

Molecular Structure and Modeling of Water-Air and Ice-Air Interfaces Monitored by Sum-Frequency Generation

From a glass of water to glaciers in Antarctica, water-air and ice-air interfaces are abundant on Earth. Molecular-level structure and dynamics at these interfaces are key for understanding many chemical/physical/atmospheric processes including the slipperiness of ice surfaces, the surface tension of water, and evaporation/sublimation of water. Sum-frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy is a powerful tool to probe the molecular-level structure of these interfaces because SFG can specifically probe the topmost interfacial water molecules separately from the bulk and is sensitive to molecular conformation. Nevertheless, experimental SFG has several limitations. For example, SFG cannot provide information on the depth of the interface and how the orientation of the molecules varies with distance from the surface. By combining the SFG spectroscopy with simulation techniques, one can directly compare the experimental data with the simulated SFG spectra, allowing us to unveil the molecular-level structure of water-air and ice-air interfaces. Here, we present an overview of the different simulation protocols available for SFG spectra calculations. We systematically compare the SFG spectra computed with different approaches, revealing the advantages and disadvantages of the different methods. Furthermore, we account for the findings through combined SFG experiments and simulations and provide future challenges for SFG experiments and simulations at different aqueous interfaces.

Rounded Layering Transitions on the Surface of Ice

Understanding the wetting properties of premelting films requires knowledge of the film's equation of state, which is not usually available. Here we calculate the disjoining pressure curve of premelting films and perform a detailed thermodynamic characterization of premelting behavior on ice. Analysis of the density profiles reveals the signature of weak layering phenomena, from one to two and from two to three water molecular layers. However, disjoining pressure curves, which closely follow expectations from a renormalized mean field liquid state theory, show that there are no layering phase transitions in the thermodynamic sense along the sublimation line. Instead, we find that transitions at mean field level are rounded due to capillary wave fluctuations. We see signatures that true first order layering transitions could arise at low temperatures, for pressures between the metastable line of water-vapor coexistence and the sublimation line. The extrapolation of the disjoining pressure curve above water-vapor saturation displays a true first order phase transition from a thin to a thick film consistent with experimental observations.

The Influence of Isotropic Surface Roughness of Steel Sliders on Ice Friction Under Different Testing Conditions

Ice friction is affected by various system and surface-related parameters such as ice temperature, ambient air temperature and humidity, relative sliding velocity, specific surface pressures and surface texture (waviness, roughness) as well as the macroscopic geometry of the samples. The influences of these parameters cannot be easily separated from each other. Therefore, ice friction is a very complex tribological system and it is challenging to draw sound conclusions from the experiments. In this work, ice friction experiments with stainless steel samples that have different isotropic surface roughness values were carried out. Two tribological experimental setups were used: (i) an inclined ice track where the sliding velocity of the freely sliding steel samples was determined and (ii) an oscillating tribometer, where the coefficient of friction was assessed. For both experimental setups, the environmental parameters such as air temperature, relative humidity and ice surface temperature as well as the test parameters such as normal load and surface pressure were kept as constant as possible. The results of the experiments are discussed in relation to the ice friction mechanisms and the friction regimes.

Unveiling Heterogeneity of Interfacial Water through the Water Bending Mode

The water bending mode provides a powerful probe of the microscopic structure of bulk aqueous systems because its frequency and spectral line shape are responsive to the intermolecular interactions. Furthermore, interpreting the bending mode response is straightforward, as the intramolecular vibrational coupling is absent. Nevertheless, bending mode has not been used for probing the interfacial water structure, as it has been yet argued that the signal is dominated by bulk effects. Here, through the sum-frequency generation measurement of the water bending mode at the water/air and water/charged lipid interfaces, we demonstrate that the bending mode signal is dominated not by the bulk but by the interface. Subsequently, we disentangle the hydrogen-bonding of water at the water/air interface using the bending mode frequency distribution and find distinct interfacial hydrogen-bonded structures, which can be directly related to the interfacial organization of water. The bending mode thus provides an excellent probe of aqueous interfacial structure.

The Surface of Ice under Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium Conditions

The ice premelt, often called the quasi-liquid layer (QLL), is key for the lubrication of ice, gas uptake by ice, and growth of aerosols. Despite its apparent importance, in-depth understanding of the ice premelt from the microscopic to the macroscopic scale has not been gained. By reviewing data obtained using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, sum-frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy, and laser confocal differential interference contrast microscopy (LCM-DIM), we provide a unified view of the experimentally observed variation in quasi-liquid (QL) states. In particular, we disentangle three distinct types of QL states of disordered layers, QL-droplet, and QL-film and discuss their nature.

The topmost ice layer is energetically unstable, as the topmost interfacial H₂O molecules lose a hydrogen bonding partner, generating a disordered layer at the ice–air interface. This disordered layer is homogeneously distributed over the ice surface. The nature of the disordered layer changes over a wide temperature range from −90 °C to the bulk melting point. Combined MD simulations and SFG measurements reveal that the topmost ice surface starts to be disordered around −90 °C through a process that the topmost water molecules with three hydrogen bonds convert to a doubly hydrogen-bonded species. When the temperature is further increased, the second layer starts to become disordered at around −16 °C. This disordering occurs not in a gradual manner, but in a bilayer-by-bilayer manner.

When the temperature reaches −2 °C, more complicated structures, QL-droplet and QL-film, emerge on the top of the ice surface. These QL-droplets and QL-films are inhomogeneously distributed, in contrast to the disordered layer. We show that these QL-droplet and QL-film emerge only under supersaturated/undersaturated vapor pressure conditions, as partial and pseudopartial wetting states, respectively. Experiments with precisely controlled pressure show that, near the water vapor pressure at the vapor-ice equilibrium condition, no QL-droplet and QL-film can be observed, implying that the QL-droplet and QL-film emerge exclusively under nonequilibrium conditions, as opposed to the disordered layers formed under equilibrium conditions.

These findings are connected with many phenomena related to the ice surface. For example, we explain how the disordering of the topmost ice surface governs the slipperiness of the ice surface, allowing for ice skating. Further focus is on the gas uptake mechanism on the ice surface. Finally, we note the unresolved questions and future challenges regarding the ice premelt.

Fluctuation spectroscopy of surface melting of ice with and without impurities

Water is ubiquitous, and the surface properties of ice have been studied for some time, due to their importance. A liquidlike layer (LLL) is known to exist on ice, below the melting point. We use surface thermal fluctuation spectroscopy to study the LLL, including its thickness, for pure ice, and for ice with impurities. We find that the properties of the LLL are experimentally those of liquid water, with thickness much smaller than previous results. We also find that impurities cause the LLL to be thicker, and quite inhomogeneous, with properties depending on the dopant.

Why is Ice Slippery? Simulations of Shear Viscosity of the Quasi-Liquid Layer on Ice

The temperature and depth dependence of the shear viscosity (η) of the quasi-liquid layer (QLL) of water on ice-I_h crystals was determined using simulations of the TIP4P/Ice model. The crystals display either the basal {0001} or prismatic {101̅0} facets, and we find that the QLL viscosity depends on the presented facet, the distance from the solid/liquid interface, and the undercooling temperature. Structural order parameters provide two distinct estimates of the QLL widths, which are found to range from 6.0 to 7.8 Å, and depend on the facet and undercooling temperature. Above 260 K, the viscosity of the vapor-adjacent water layer is significantly less viscous than the solid-adjacent layer and is also lower than the viscosity of liquid water.