Theory 11/Phase & ice/Ice nucleation
Nucleation Is Surface Against Bulk
The claim
Ice nucleation rate is set by the ratio of interfacial free energy to bulk free-energy difference, so supercooling must reach a threshold before freezing is probable.
01Mechanism
A nucleus must overcome the surface penalty, which shrinks relative to the bulk gain as temperature falls.
02Prediction
Rate should rise sharply below a threshold temperature.
03Refutation
Rate rising smoothly with supercooling would remove the barrier.