Electric Charge Can Change Freezing Point of Water

A new study has just found out that water can freeze depending on the surface they are put on—whether the surface is positively or negatively charged. There are also some instances when water can freeze while it heats up.

According to Igor Lubomirsky of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, this discovery means that we can freeze water by merely changing the electric charge of a surface. “you can either suppress ice formation or enhance ice formation,” he said.
Water usually freezes when an ice crystal freezes around a particle of dust. Without this starting point, water will remain liquid down to -42 degrees Celsius. This is called the supercooled water, which is normally used for lab test and the like.
For decaded, scientists have suspected that electric fields could be used to trigger supercooled water. A molecule of water has a slight positive charge on one end and a negative charge on the other end. Through electric charge, water molecules can align to a rigid formation depending on the charge.
Lubomirsky used a pyroelectric material, which is capable of forming electric field when heated or cooled. They placed four crystals on this surface, placed water inside them, and turned the thermostat in the room until water droplets formed inside the crystal glasses.
Amazingly, they found that the water placed on the surface with no charge froze at -12.5 degrees Celsius while that with positive charge froze at -7 degrees Celsius. However, the surface with negative charge resulted to water freezing at -18 degrees Celsius.
The scientists were also able to freeze water by heating it up. According to Lubomirsky, they still don’t have a plan yet on what they can do with this new discovery. But certain applications may begin forming in some minds as to how they can make use of this startling new research.

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