Articles | Volume 26, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-5635-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-5635-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Measurement report: Ice nucleation ability of perthite feldspar powder
Julia Canet
Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona ICMAB-CSIC, Campus Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Institut Químic de Sarrià, Universitat Ramon Llull, Via Augusta 390, 08017 Barcelona, Spain
Laura Rodríguez
Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona ICMAB-CSIC, Campus Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
Galit Renzer
Department of Molecular Spectroscopy, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, 55128 Mainz, Germany
Pura Alfonso
Departament d'Enginyeria Minera, Industrial i TIC, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Av. Bases de Manresa 61–63, 08242 Manresa, Spain
Mischa Bonn
Department of Molecular Spectroscopy, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, 55128 Mainz, Germany
Konrad Meister
Department of Molecular Spectroscopy, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, 55128 Mainz, Germany
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Boise State University, Boise, Idaho 83725, USA
Maite Garcia-Valles
Departament de Mineralogia, Petrologia i Geologia Aplicada, Universitat de Barcelona (UB), c/ Martí i Franquès, s/n, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Albert Verdaguer
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona ICMAB-CSIC, Campus Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
Related authors
No articles found.
Rosemary J. Eufemio, Galit Renzer, Mariah Rojas, Jolanta Miadlikowska, Todd L. Sformo, François Lutzoni, Boris A. Vinatzer, and Konrad Meister
Biogeosciences, 22, 2087–2096, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2087-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2087-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Biological ice nucleation plays key roles in organism survival and in shaping Earth’s atmospheric patterns. Our pan-American screening of Peltigera lichens reveals that the lichen thalli produce highly active ice nucleators (INs) resistant to freeze–thaw cycles. Notably, a pure fungal culture from Peltigera britannica released the most potent INs reported to date. Given the global abundance of these lichens, the INs may be important contributors to atmospheric processes.
António Soares de Sousa, Elsa Maria Carvalho Gomes, Laura Bayés-García, Alessandra Di Mariano, and Maite Garcia-Valles
Eur. J. Mineral., 37, 53–62, https://doi.org/10.5194/ejm-37-53-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/ejm-37-53-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
In this work, we used Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to analyse 25 rubies and sapphires, including natural, synthetic, and treated specimens. By optimising sample positioning, we identified distinct spectral fingerprints for each type and treatment. This systematic approach enhances gemstone identification accuracy and contributes valuable data to existing gemological databases, enabling faster and more reliable analyses in the future.
Florian Wieland, Nadine Bothen, Ralph Schwidetzky, Teresa M. Seifried, Paul Bieber, Ulrich Pöschl, Konrad Meister, Mischa Bonn, Janine Fröhlich-Nowoisky, and Hinrich Grothe
Biogeosciences, 22, 103–115, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-103-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-103-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Betula pendula is a widespread birch tree species containing ice nucleation agents that can trigger the freezing of cloud droplets and thereby alter the evolution of clouds. Our study identifies three distinct ice-nucleating macromolecule (INM) aggregates of varying size that can nucleate ice at temperatures up to –5.4°C. Our findings suggest that these vegetation-derived particles may influence atmospheric processes, weather, and climate more strongly than previously thought.
Rosemary J. Eufemio, Ingrid de Almeida Ribeiro, Todd L. Sformo, Gary A. Laursen, Valeria Molinero, Janine Fröhlich-Nowoisky, Mischa Bonn, and Konrad Meister
Biogeosciences, 20, 2805–2812, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2805-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2805-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Lichens, the dominant vegetation in the Arctic, contain ice nucleators (INs) that enable freezing close to 0°C. Yet the abundance, diversity, and function of lichen INs is unknown. Our screening of lichens across Alaska reveal that most species have potent INs. We find that lichens contain two IN populations which retain activity under environmentally relevant conditions. The ubiquity and stability of lichen INs suggest that they may have considerable impacts on local atmospheric patterns.
Ingrid de Almeida Ribeiro, Konrad Meister, and Valeria Molinero
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 5623–5639, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5623-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5623-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Ice formation is a key atmospheric process facilitated by a wide range of aerosols. We present a method to model and interpret ice nucleation experiments and extract the distribution of the potency of nucleation sites. We use the method to optimize the conditions of laboratory sampling and extract distributions of ice nucleation temperatures from bacteria, fungi, and pollen. These reveal unforeseen subpopulations of nuclei in these systems and how they respond to changes in their environment.
Cited articles
Atkinson, J. D., Murray, B. J., Woodhouse, M. T., Whale, T. F., Baustian, K. J., Carslaw, K. S., Dobbie, S., O'Sullivan, D., and Malkin, T. L.: The importance of feldspar for ice nucleation by mineral dust in mixed-phase clouds, Nature, 498, 355–358, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12278, 2013.
Augustin-Bauditz, S., Wex, H., Kanter, S., Ebert, M., Niedermeier, D., Stolz, F., Prager, A., and Stratmann, F.: The immersion mode ice nucleation behavior of mineral dusts: A comparison of different pure and surface modified dusts, Geophys. Res. Lett., 41, 7375–7382, https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GL061317, 2014.
Brown, W. L. and Parsons, I.: Zoned ternary feldspars in the Klokken intrusion: exsolution microtextures and mechanisms, Contr. Mineral. Petrol., 98, 444–454, https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00372364, 1988.
Brunauer, S., Emmett, P. H., and Teller, E.: Adsorption of Gases in Multimolecular Layers, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 60, 309–319, https://doi.org/10.1021/ja01269a023, 1938.
Burrows, S. M., McCluskey, C. S., Cornwell, G., Steinke, I., Zhang, K., Zhao, B., Zawadowicz, M., Raman, A., Kulkarni, G., China, S., Zelenyuk, A., and DeMott, P. J.: Ice-Nucleating Particles That Impact Clouds and Climate: Observational and Modeling Research Needs, Rev. Geophys., 60, e2021RG000745, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021RG000745, 2022.
Canet, J., Rodríguez Domínguez, L., Renzer, G., Alfonso, P., Bonn, M., Meister, K., Garcia-Valles, M., and Verdaguer, A.: Dataset: Ice nucleation ability of perthite feldspar powder, Zenodo [data det], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17396669, 2025.
Chatziparaschos, M., Daskalakis, N., Myriokefalitakis, S., Kalivitis, N., Nenes, A., Gonçalves Ageitos, M., Costa-Surós, M., Pérez García-Pando, C., Zanoli, M., Vrekoussis, M., and Kanakidou, M.: Role of K-feldspar and quartz in global ice nucleation by mineral dust in mixed-phase clouds, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 1785–1801, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1785-2023, 2023.
Cziczo, D. J., Froyd, K. D., Hoose, C., Jensen, E. J., Diao, M., Zondlo, M. A., Smith, J. B., Twohy, C. H., and Murphy, D. M.: Clarifying the Dominant Sources and Mechanisms of Cirrus Cloud Formation, Science, 340, 1320–1324, doi.org/10.1126/science.1234145, 2013.
Daily, M. I., Whale, T. F., Kilbride, P., Lamb, S., John Morris, G., Picton, H. M., and Murray, B. J.: A highly active mineral-based ice nucleating agent supports in situ cell cryopreservation in a high throughput format, J. R. Soc. Interface, 20, 20220682, https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2022.0682, 2023.
de Almeida Ribeiro, I., Meister, K., and Molinero, V.: HUB: a method to model and extract the distribution of ice nucleation temperatures from drop-freezing experiments, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 5623–5639, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5623-2023, 2023.
Franceschi, G., Conti, A., Lezuo, L., Abart, R., Mittendorfer, F., Schmid, M., and Diebold, U.: How Water Binds to Microcline Feldspar (001), J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 15, 15–22, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c03235, 2024.
Friddle, R. W. and Thürmer, K.: How nanoscale surface steps promote ice growth on feldspar: microscopy observation of morphology-enhanced condensation and freezing, Nanoscale, 11, 21147–21154, https://doi.org/10.1039/c9nr08729j, 2019.
Harrison, A. D., Whale, T. F., Carpenter, M. A., Holden, M. A., Neve, L., O'Sullivan, D., Vergara Temprado, J., and Murray, B. J.: Not all feldspars are equal: a survey of ice nucleating properties across the feldspar group of minerals, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 10927–10940, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-10927-2016, 2016.
Hoose, C. and Möhler, O.: Heterogeneous ice nucleation on atmospheric aerosols: a review of results from laboratory experiments, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 12, 9817–9854, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-12-9817-2012, 2012.
Kanji, Z. A., Ladino, L. A., Wex, H., Boose, Y., Burkert-Kohn, M., Cziczo, D. J., and Krämer, M.: Overview of Ice Nucleating Particles, Am. Meteorol. Soc., 58, 1.1–1.33, https://doi.org/10.1175/amsmonographs-d-16-0006.1, 2017.
Keinert, A., Deck, K., Gaedeke, T., Leisner, T., and Kiselev, A. A.: Mechanism of ice nucleation in liquid water on alkali feldspars, Faraday Discuss., 235, 148–161, https://doi.org/10.1039/d1fd00115a, 2022.
Kiselev, A., Bachmann, F., Pedevilla, P., Cox, S. J., Michaelides, A., Gerthsen, D., and Leisner, T.: Active sites in heterogeneous ice nucleation-the example of K-rich feldspars, Science, 355, 367–371, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aai8034, 2017.
Kiselev, A. A., Keinert, A., Gaedeke, T., Leisner, T., Sutter, C., Petrishcheva, E., and Abart, R.: Effect of chemically induced fracturing on the ice nucleation activity of alkali feldspar, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 11801–11814, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11801-2021, 2021.
Knopf, D. A. and Alpert, P. A.: Atmospheric ice nucleation, Nat. Rev. Phys., 5, 203–217, https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-023-00570-7, 2023.
Kunert, A. T., Lamneck, M., Helleis, F., Pöschl, U., Pöhlker, M. L., and Fröhlich-Nowoisky, J.: Twin-plate Ice Nucleation Assay (TINA) with infrared detection for high-throughput droplet freezing experiments with biological ice nuclei in laboratory and field samples, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 6327–6337, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-6327-2018, 2018.
Liang, M., Cheng, Y., Zhou, X., Liu, J., and Wang, J.: Determining Roles of Potassium-Feldspar Surface Characters in Affecting Ice Nucleation, Small Methods, 8, 2300407, https://doi.org/10.1002/smtd.202300407, 2024.
Martin, R. F., Galí, S., Alfonso, P., and Melgarejo, J. C: Three-Phase Perthite and the Progressive Predominance of Albite in the Cap de Creus LCT Pegmatite Swarm, Catalunya, Spain, Can. J. Mineral. Petrol., 63, 747–759, https://doi.org/10.3749/240002, 2025.
Murray, B. J., O'sullivan, D., Atkinson, J. D., and Webb, M. E.: Ice nucleation by particles immersed in supercooled cloud droplets, Chem. Soc. Rev., 41, 6519–6554, https://doi.org/10.1039/c2cs35200a, 2012.
Murray, B. J., Carslaw, K. S., and Field, P. R.: Opinion: Cloud-phase climate feedback and the importance of ice-nucleating particles, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 665–679, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-665-2021, 2021.
Murray, K. A. and Gibson, M. I.: Chemical approaches to cryopreservation, Nat. Rev. Chem., 6, 579–593, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-022-00407-4, 2022.
Pach, E. and Verdaguer, A.: Pores Dominate Ice Nucleation on Feldspars, J. Phys. Chem. C, 123, 20998–21004, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.9b05845, 2019.
Pach, E. and Verdaguer, A.: Freezing efficiency of feldspars is affected by their history of previous freeze-thaw events, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 23, 24905–24914, https://doi.org/10.1039/d1cp02548a, 2021.
Peckhaus, A., Kiselev, A., Hiron, T., Ebert, M., and Leisner, T.: A comparative study of K-rich and Na Ca-rich feldspar ice-nucleating particles in a nanoliter droplet freezing assay, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 11477–11496, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11477-2016, 2016.
Pedevilla, P., Cox, S. J., Slater, B., and Michaelides, A.: Can Ice-Like Structures Form on Non-Ice-Like Substrates? The Example of the K-feldspar Microcline, J. Phys. Chem. C, 120, 6704–6713, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b01155, 2016.
Pedevilla, P., Fitzner, M., and Michaelides, A.: What makes a good descriptor for heterogeneous ice nucleation on OH-patterned surfaces, Phys. Rev. B, 96, 115441, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.115441, 2017.
Renzer, G., de Almeida Ribeiro, I., Guo, H. B., Fröhlich-Nowoisky, J., Berry, R. J., Bonn, M., Molinero, V., and Meister, K.: Hierarchical assembly and environmental enhancement of bacterial ice nucleators, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 121, e2409283121, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2409283121, 2024.
Ribbe, P. H. (Ed.): Feldspar Mineralogy, Vol. 2, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 369 pp., ISBN 0-939950-14-6, 2018.
Shimizu, T. K., Maier, S., Verdaguer, A., Velasco-Velez, J. J., and Salmeron, M.: Water at surfaces and interfaces: From molecules to ice and bulk liquid, Prog. Surf. Sci., 93, 87–107, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.progsurf.2018.09.004, 2018.
Sosso, G. C., Sudera, P., Backes, A. T., Whale, T. F., Fröhlich-Nowoisky, J., Bonn, M., Michaelides, A., and Backus, E. H. G.: The role of structural order in heterogeneous ice nucleation, Chem. Sci., 13, 5014–5026, https://doi.org/10.1039/d1sc06338c, 2022.
Vali, G.: Quantitative evaluation of experimental results on the heterogeneous freezing nucleation of supercooled liquids, J. Atmos. Sci., 28, 402–409, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1971)028<0402:QEOERA>2.0.CO;2, 1971.
Vali, G.: Interpretation of freezing nucleation experiments: singular and stochastic; sites and surfaces, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 5271–5294, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-5271-2014, 2014.
Vali, G.: Revisiting the differential freezing nucleus spectra derived from drop-freezing experiments: methods of calculation, applications, and confidence limits, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 1219–1231, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1219-2019, 2019.
Verdaguer, A., Sacha, G. M., Bluhm, H., and Salmeron, M.: Molecular structure of water at interfaces: Wetting at the nanometer scale, Chem. Rev., 106, 1478–1510, https://doi.org/10.1021/cr040376l, 2006.
Warr, L. N.: IMA–CNMNC approved mineral symbols, Mineral. Mag., 85, 291–320, https://doi.org/10.1180/mgm.2021.43, 2021.
Welti, A., Lohmann, U., and Kanji, Z. A.: Ice nucleation properties of K-feldspar polymorphs and plagioclase feldspars, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 10901–10918, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-10901-2019, 2019.
Whale, T. F., Holden, M. A., Kulak, A. N., Kim, Y. Y., Meldrum, F. C., Christenson, H. K., and Murray, B. J.: The role of phase separation and related topography in the exceptional ice-nucleating ability of alkali feldspars, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 19, 31186–31193, https://doi.org/10.1039/c7cp04898j, 2017.
Short summary
Alkali-feldspars are known to be efficient ice-nucleating particles. Analysis on the efficiency of perthite feldspars show that it depends on crystallographic structure rather than composition. Microcline-perthites displayed a continuous increase in active site density as temperature was cooled down, while orthoclase showed plateaus, reflecting interruptions in the increase of activity with temperature. These results suggest that order enhances while disorder limits ice nucleation activation.
Alkali-feldspars are known to be efficient ice-nucleating particles. Analysis on the efficiency...
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint