An experimental investigation of charge transfer during ice contact interactions

An experiment has been performed to investigate charge transfer and mass transfer between two ice samples that are brought in contact for a brief time. These measurements were made in one atmosphere of air on ice initially grown in vacuum from deionized water. The environmental temperature and the temperature difference between the ice samples were varied and the results show that there is significant charge transfer when a temperature difference is imposed between the ice samples. However, it is demonstrated that the resultant growth rate of the ice layers may be the more relevant parameter for understanding the microphysics of charge transfer. This behavior was observed for three different ambient temperatures with little variation. The results also show that contact mass transfer under conditions identical to those of the charge measurements is significant and is probably too large to be explained by the classical theory of surface premelting of pure ice.