A simple ice nucleation spectrometer

The construction of a simple ice nucleation spectrometer is described. It uses 10 l droplets loaded into glass capillary tubes which are then inserted into an aluminium holder. Each holder takes six capillary tubes surrounding a central thermocouple. Four holders are placed into a cooling block, cooled by fluid from a programmable refrigerated circulator, and the thermocouples interfaced to a computer to record temperatures. Freezing of each sample is detected by an exotherm on the temperature recording, with 24 samples recorded per run. The spectrometer was tested using deionized water, an extract from a New Zealand alpine cockroach and an extract of lawn grass. The cockroach extract is estimated to contain about 10³ more nucleators, active at -5°C, than the grass extract.