Automated Realization of the Triple Point of Water Using the Mush Method

In order to investigate mechanisms of phase transitions of supercooled water in a triple-point-of-water (TPW) cell when a mush method was used to create an ice mantle, an automated apparatus using small TPW cells was developed to obtain the TPW. In this article, the design principle, the apparatus, and the procedure for an automated formation of ice mantles in small TPW cells are described. Supercooled water in small TPW cells spontaneously transformed into uniform metastable dendritic crystals throughout the cells at supercoolings ranging from 5.85 °C to 8.77 °C and then changed into stable hexagonal closed-packed cellular crystals, forming an outer ice mantle from the outside inward. Some pertinent explanations based on thermodynamic solidification theory were used to describe the phase transition process in the mush method. In addition, the experimental results indicated that the realized temperatures of water in the small TPW cells were in good agreement within 0.1 mK approximately 6 h after the initial spontaneous crystallization had occurred. Finally, the small TPW cells (s/n 008 and s/n 001) were directly compared with a conventional TPW cell (s/n NIM-1-211); the temperature differences between the small TPW cells and the regular TPW cell were less than 0.21 mK.