The influence of surface-salinity interactions on ice nucleation for indirect freeze desalination
Khadije EL KADI, Sohail MURAD, Isam JANAJREH
Abstract. In freeze desalination (FD), controlling ice nucleation is essential for maximizing water recovery and ice purity. This study investigates the influence of droplet salinity on surface wettability, heat transfer, and ice nucleation behavior of sessile water droplets on an aluminum substrate using a combined experimental and molecular dynamics (MD) approach. MD simulations reveal a systematic increase in equilibrium contact angle with salinity, rising from 52.5° for pure water to 64° at 35 g/L NaCl and 96.5° at 70 g/L NaCl, indicating a substantial reduction in droplet–surface affinity. Experimental contact angle measurements show close agreement with these predictions, yielding values of 54.9° ± 1.1°, 67.45° ± 0.68°, and 94° ± 0.71° for the same salinity levels. The increased contact angle corresponds to a reduced solid–liquid contact area, which diminishes heat transfer between the droplet and the aluminum surface. Freezing experiments confirm that pure water droplets nucleate and freeze more rapidly than saline droplets, while higher salinity solutions exhibit delayed ice formation due to reduced interfacial heat flux and enhanced supercooling. These results demonstrate that salinity plays a critical role in governing droplet–surface interactions and freezing dynamics, providing quantitative insight into ice nucleation control for indirect freeze desalination and related phase-change applications.
Keywords
Freeze Desalination, Ice Nucleation, Wettability, Molecular Dynamics, Contact Angle
Published online 6/20/2026, 7 pages
Copyright © 2026 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Khadije EL KADI, Sohail MURAD, Isam JANAJREH, The influence of surface-salinity interactions on ice nucleation for indirect freeze desalination, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 67, pp 585-591, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644904176-78
The article was published as article 78 of the book Climate Action and Sustainability
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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