- 1Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona ICMAB-CSIC, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Catalonia, Spain.
- 2Departament de Mineralogia, Petrologia i Geologia Aplicada, Facultat de Ciències de 7 la Terra, Universitat de Barcelona-UB, Carrer de Martí i Franquès, s/n, 08028 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
- 3Department of Molecular Spectroscopy, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz 55128, Germany
- 4Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Boise State University, Boise, ID 83725 USA
The challenges of global warming and climate change demand climate models with accurate projections to effectively plan adaptation and mitigation strategies. However, significant uncertainties persist in current climate models. One key uncertainty involves the behavior of mixed-phase clouds, which consist of supercooled droplets and ice crystals. The dynamics between the phases within these clouds are critical to understanding precipitation and cloud albedo, both of which influence the regulation of global warming [1].
Aerosol particles capable of nucleating ice, known as ice-nucleating particles (INPs), play a vital role in these mixed-phase dynamics. Numerous studies have examined how materials' surface properties modify water structure at the interface, modifying their ice nucleation activity [2]. Among the various INPs present in the atmosphere, feldspars have garnered substantial attention over the past decade due to their high nucleation efficiency. This efficiency has been shown to be affected by felspar surface properties such as surface chemistry, structure or morphology [3]
In this presentation, we will share our analysis of feldspar samples collected from various mines in Europe and Africa, focusing on the evolution of their ice-nucleation efficiency after prolonged immersion in water. Using droplet-freezing assay experiments, we identified different categories of ice-nucleation sites, utilizing an analytical method developed by our team [4]. We investigated the evolution of these site families over time in water, finding that some sites disappeared while others remained stable.X-ray diffraction studies show that the feldspar samples used in the previous tests undergo weathering and evolve to stable mineral and/or amphipathic phases under new conditions. Our results demonstrate that feldspar particles within clouds can undergo transformations when immersed in water droplets, altering their ice-nucleation efficiency over timescales of just a few weeks.
[1]“Ice-Nucleating Particles That Impact Clouds and Climate: Observational and Modeling Research Needs” S. M. Burrows et al. Rev. Geophys. 60 (2) e2021RG000745 (2022)
[2]” Water at surfaces and interfaces: From molecules to ice and bulk liquid.” T.K. Shimizu, S. Mayer, A. Verdaguer, J.J. Velasco-Velez, M. Salmeron. Progress in Surface Science 4, 87(2018).
[3]“Pores Dominate Ice Nucleation on Feldspars” E. Pach and A. Verdaguer J. Phys. Chem. C 123, 34, 20998–21004, (2019)
[4] “HUB: A method to model and extract the distribution of ice nucleation temperatures from drop-freezing experiments” I. de Almeida Ribeiro, K. Meister, V. Molinero, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 23 (10), 5623-5639, (2023)
How to cite: Verdaguer, A., Canet, J., Rodríguez, L., Garcia-Valles, M., Renzer, G., Bonn, M., and Meister, K.: Aging of feldspar ice nucleation particles immersed in water: the loss of ice-nucleation efficiency of mineral particles in clouds., EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-9444, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-9444, 2025.
