Different intermediate water cluster with distinct nucleation dynamics among mono layer ice nucleation

Abstract: Recent first-principle calculations unveiled a distinctive dynamic behavior in water molecule rotation during the melting process of highly confined water, indicating a notable time-scale separation in diffusion. In this short paper, we conducted molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to explore the rotation dynamics during the mono-layer ice nucleation process to investigate the possible intermediate states characterized by the differences in rotation of water molecules. Our study reveals two types of ice clusters with similar ice geometric structure but possess distinctly different rotational behaviors. In terms of molecular rotation, one type cluster is ice like (ILC) and can be regarded as small ice nuclei while the other is supercooled liquid water like (SCC). We found distinct nucleation pathways, thermodynamic properties, and phase transition dynamics to associate with these intermediate clusters, which yielded an unexpectedly complex picture of mono-layer ice nucleation.