Lignin's ability to nucleate ice via immersion freezing and its stability towards physicochemical treatments and atmospheric processing

Bogler, Sophie; Borduas-Dedekind, Nadine

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-14509-2020

Articles | Volume 20, issue 23

Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 14509–14522, 2020

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-14509-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 14509–14522, 2020

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-14509-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 23

Research article 30 Nov 2020

Research article | 30 Nov 2020

Lignin's ability to nucleate ice via immersion freezing and its stability towards physicochemical treatments and atmospheric processing

Sophie Bogler and Nadine Borduas-Dedekind

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-14509-2020-supplement

Data sets

Lignin’s ability to nucleate ice via immersion freezing and its stability towards physicochemical treatments and atmospheric processing Sophie Bogler and Nadine Borduas-Dedekind https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000422111

Short summary

To study the role of organic matter in ice crystal formation, we investigated the ice nucleation ability of a subcomponent of organic aerosols, the biopolymer lignin, using a droplet-freezing technique. We found that lignin is an ice-active macromolecule with changing abilities based on dilutions. The effects of atmospheric processing and of physicochemical treatments on the ability of lignin solutions to freeze were negligible. Thus, lignin is a recalcitrant ice-nucleating macromolecule.