Dynamics and unsteady morphologies at ice interfaces driven by D 2 O-H 2 O exchange.

The growth dynamics of D2 O ice in liquid H2 O in a microfluidic device were investigated between the melting points of D2 O ice (3.8 °C) and H2 O ice (0 °C). As the temperature was decreased at rates between 0.002 °C/s and 0.1 °C/s, the ice front advanced but retreated immediately upon cessation of cooling, regardless of the temperature. This is a consequence of the competition between diffusion of H2 O into the D2 O ice, which favors melting of the interface, and the driving force for growth supplied by cooling. Raman microscopy tracked H/D exchange across the solid H2 O-solid D2 O interface, with diffusion coefficients consistent with transport of intact H2 O molecules at the D2 O ice interface. At fixed temperatures below 3 °C, the D2 O ice front melted continuously, but at temperatures near 0 °C a scalloped interface morphology appeared with convex and concave sections that cycled between growth and retreat. This behavior, not observed for D2 O ice in contact with D2 O liquid or H2 O ice in contact with H2 O liquid, reflects a complex set of cooperative phenomena, including H/D exchange across the solid-liquid interface, latent heat exchange, local thermal gradients, and the Gibbs-Thomson effect on the melting points of the convex and concave features.