The ice nucleation studies in our laboratory have also led to a collaboration with Gren Patey (at UBC) involving computer simulations to better understand and predict ice nucleation on a molecular level. This collaboration has shown that the good ice nucleation characteristics of mineral dust are not likely due to the crystallographic match between mineral surfaces and hexagonal ice, contrary to previous speculations in textbooks on the subject. Current research focuses on ice nucleation on defects such as steps, edges, and cracks. To the right is a cover page from the Journal of Physical Chemistry A, which recently highlighted our work on this.
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