What is polycrystalline water?

[@leovalenzuela8368]

"showing only the successes and not the failures isnt very scientific" subscribed on the spot.

[@r0cketplumber]

Plan A always goes up in flames.

[@leovalenzuela8368]

@@r0cketplumber haha yes, very true

[@xarin42]

The failures really are important and interesting too. I wish more channels showed them.

[@Laralinda]

I wish more scientific researchers showed them too!

[@ericlotze7724]

@@Laralinda But replicating results, or having failed studies doesn't get you g r a n t s...

[@battlesheep2552]

In science, you only fail if you don't learn anything

[@DreStyle]

They are, you don't need to see what makes it good, but bad.. In that way it's easy to understand the process

[@krumplethemal8831]

You mean like the Dude Perfect guys who lead their audience into believing they get the first attempt at a trick shot on the first try. When it probably took a hundred if not, more attempts but they always edit out the fails..

[@happyundertaker6255]

Hexagons are the bestagons.

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

Indeed. I saw that video a few weeks ago then proceeded to watch every main Gray video I could find...

[@stefanheimersheim]

Only outmatched by Hexaflexagons :-) [see Vihart's videos]

[@awesomefeldmanfamily]

@@stefanheimersheim ah yes, a classic

[@raziasultana5222]

Yes cgp grey makes the bestahexagons.

[@Tepalus]

200th like, take it or leave it :D

[@fastedeverything8555]

"this is ice" The crow in the background: "thanks captain obvious!"

[@lootgodamn5721]

" that is a loud bird "

[@kasai7272]

The timing was so good I thought it was editing at first

[@ravenna6543]

@@kasai7272 Same

[@pyromen321]

Awesome video! Seeing the actual grain boundaries in ice was really cool! I’m excited to see your vapor deposition process!

[@samykamkar]

Super cool video! Thanks for sharing.

[@Jakub1989YTb]

Supercooled video!

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

Ba dum tss

[@Trooopetre]

Watching this video my brain was screaming about using vapor deposition. Living somewhere it is currently negative 25C, I have massive crystals like that growing on every vent of the house.

[@bdf2718]

Sounds almost like molecular beam epitaxy. I wonder where we can find somebody who knows about that.

[@Jeremyak]

I know it's getting cold where I live when I get frost developing on every screw and nail head that leads to an exterior wall. And one of the most beautiful sights you'll ever see is the massive hoar frost crystals that grow during a particularly long cold snap. 🌨

[@themightyripples6582]

You're quickly becoming my favourite YT scientist. Thank you for your work.

[@ГеоргиГеоргиев-с3г]

"that's a loud bird", no it's either a crow or a raven,the humble loudbird died when we stopped naming animals by description.

[@koniginator]

The anteater begs to differ

[@nomsterdude]

😔

[@nomsterdude]

@@koniginator The anteaters just built different

[@miss-sagemoon]

does this mean big bird is an endangered species?

[@ГеоргиГеоргиев-с3г]

@@miss-sagemoon yes! (That was a joke, as is this)

[@SimulatingPhysics]

Hi! I came from the Physics subreddit. I really liked your demonstrations. What is the size of the grains showed at 4:48? I mean, how much zoom is the photo?

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

most of the columnar grains from the zoom-in are on the order of 1-5 mm across. I was using the kit 50mm sony lens with a macro tube for a bit closer focus. At the edges of the "boule" there are some large grains, like one entire side that was pushed against the edge of the container was a grain, but it wasn't very thick, and as you get closer to the middle it gets messier. The edges probably nucleated by themselves early and some of them got big before colliding

[@SimulatingPhysics]

@@AlphaPhoenixChannel Thank you for the detailed answer!

[@kleinesfilmroellchen]

A long time ago I made a presentation about crystalline symmetry and taxonomy. And even though I forgot everything, I still jump out in joy every time I read something like the P6cm or m3m (I hope that's a thing).

[@fizzyplazmuh9024]

Ooh! I have used a modified Bridgman technique to grow large naphtha crystals before. My family HATES mothballs now.🤮 I like to play with scintillators and particle detectors. Your explanations are so clear that you are filling a few of my gaps in crystalline ordering and thermal transfer and I am sure other things by the time I make it through all your videos. I once sat in prison for 15 years so I ordered and consumed books like "Geochemical Kinetics" and Pauling's "General Chemistry". They opened my eyes and mind more than highschool ever did. I get tingles up my spine when I get an idea that lets me apply this type of knowledge. I am an applied science junkie.

[@IanGrams]

I've always wanted to learn more about material science, thank you for sharing your knowledge of it! I've been hooked ever since that amazing bubble demo. Also thank you for sharing the things that didn't work. Totally agree that's an important part of science.

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

It's a fantastic field at the intersection of so many others!

[@IanGrams]

@@AlphaPhoenixChannel much agreed! I'm especially interested in all the cool stuff going on with 2d materials like magic angle graphene and this work I saw back in October: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201012115949.htm The TL;DR is that by stacking a monolayer 1 degree twisted from a bilayer and supercooling, an applied electric field could switch between it behaving like twisted bilayer graphene or twisted double bilayer graphene. And in the latter case it exhibited electrically tunable ferromagnetism 🤯 If you're ever trying to think of a video topic, definitely would be interested in something on graphene or other 2d materials.

[@sophiegrey9576]

"This is ice" finally, something I can understand

[@peteoconnor6388]

Came over from Steve Moulds channel and I'm so glad I did!

[@Jeremyak]

I really appreciate this channel, it seems somehow more genuine than a lot of the over-produced "I heckin love science" content out there.

[@thefipster]

KZbin is weird. My first thought was: Cool a new science channel that is actually interesting... let's check the videos.... wait this channel is already seven years old.... why did youtube hide this from me for all these years... at least now I can binge watch everything. Very informative channel with clear explanations, thank you sir, I will stick around!

[@Justus_Patrick]

i just saw your "plan a" quote. That's so inspirational because its so true. Don't quit after your first failure, your first plan is supposed to fail.

[@TheJunky228]

I almost want to share this vid with my materials sciences professor! lol thanks for the extra articles and some great visualizations and explanations ^_^

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

Haha please do! Glad you liked it!

[@hasanhas00n1]

As a material science graduate thank you for simplifying polycrystalline and single crystal in a way normal people can understand.

[@joshhickman77]

Yeah, I'm always surprised that ice is a good thermal insulator, but I guess the igloo idea is pretty solid. The aluminium idea was really good though.

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

Yeah - it surprised me too. One sentence that got cut from this video also pointed out that the seed crystal was oriented with the C axis up and down, meaning that all of the heat to freeze had to go through the slowest direction

[@ericlotze7724]

Just discovered this channel ! I didn't know any of the "odd ice-es" were possible at home/makerspace scale, neat to see all this !

[@TheBookDoctor]

Hey, you're on the cusp of 2^14 subscribers! Awesome!

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

haha yeah I'm going to be a bit late on that video this time around

[@klausnielsen1537]

Looking forward to that vapor deposition video. Great video and great explanations. TY 👍

[@heinzehrhart7142]

I saw your gerrymandering video first and thought okay that's kind of cool and now I'm bringing this channel. There are so many videos alone about f... Ice but every video still gives new info.

[@MalcolmCooks]

dude why am I only just finding your channel, these videos are really interesting, informative, and the production value and editing is off the charts

[@SoulDelSol]

Same

[@ericlotze7724]

One crystal related project area: Doing the same process of crystal growing + refining that is used for silicon or similar materials, but with sugar or something easier. So the "Molten Drawing" and "Float Zone Refining and all that. (Granted i just read some wikipedia pages! So all those terms may be wrong idk)

[@ericlotze7724]

Essentially those "Sugar Growing Projects" in elementary school science fair, but cranked up to 11, and used to teach modern crystal growth techniques, instead of "crystals are a thing".

[@SpiritOfHugs]

If the subjects weren't incredibly interesting, I probably would still watch your videos just because of your energy. It's so fun listening to people that are truly passionate about something. You're cool.

[@ravenna6543]

That bird saying "No shit sherlock" at the beginning was such perfect timing. LMAO

[@robbiekeen2644]

What a great science communicator. I don't generally like science shows (in the sense that I don't enjoy them), but the algorithm has fed part 1 and part 2 to me faithfully, and they've both kept me long enough that I've made it to the end, so I guess take a comment and like and let's hope this channel grows. I don't particularly want more of this content, but I think this is a great niche that deserves to grow.

[@maeday8839]

Thanks for sharing your process! I love seeing the fantastic and amazing things that can happen in this world but I also love seeing the 'failures' (any time when an outcome is different from a prediction) because that's where we get to discover something we didn't know before and expand our knowledge of the world. Achieving the goal is like chocolate sauce and the stuff you learn along the way is the ice-cream. Ice cream on its own is alright, but chocolate sauce on its own isn't that great. So thanks for giving us the ice cream!

[@adamlevesque3090]

in polarized light one can easily see the grains

[@RTR-py8wg]

This channel needs more views! I love learning from this channel!

[@KOWspazed]

A few TECs on a container and a bigger one on the aluminum bar would allow you to grow the crystal without needing to be in the freezer. You could also very easily monitor and control the temperature.

[@Pscribbled]

Have you tried growing monocrystalized ice by growing icicles in a controlled setting? I found some papers that some icicles are single crystals

[@br6768]

This is a cool channel im so excited to sift thru the videos. I haven't been this excited since I found Applied Science channel like 3 years ago

[@xenofurmi]

This video is so good x10. The Material Science education is so on point.

[@coffeecup1196]

Could you supercool the water without freezing it, then introduce a single-crystal seed? Kinda like how you can put a bottle of water in the freezer and every now and then it will stay as metastable liquid below the freezing point.

[@Ziraya0]

A long time ago I saw a tv show, maybe how it's made, where they covered how blocks of clear ice are made for ice carving. The process is simple, get a big ole vat of water, make it cold, and move the water constantly with a pump. The main goal of this is that it takes more energy to form a crystal with contaminants, so with the temperature held at about 0C, and the water always moving, it's too hard for contaminants to freeze into the crystal, and it's too hard for voids to form. Only good pure water can join the crystal, and it does so evenly. This method may be able to increase the margin of error with your technique even as the water cools off, by lowering the temperature of spontaneous crystallization just a little bit further below the temperature of monocrystaline growth. I imagine though that it will also make the tank more efficient at conducting the heat in the water to the walls, making it cool off faster.

[@YootSnoot]

Hey, I recently found your channel and I love the content you are making! I am thinking of going to graduate school for material science so seeing the experiments you do with crystal growth and grain structures is really inspiring. I am excited to see the next video, and in the meantime I am going to look into the Bridgman method and other ways to control crystal growth.

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

Awesome! MatSci is an amazing field at the intersection of so many others. What are you studying in undergrad? The Bridgman method is how most of our substrates are grown - they make a big cylindrical boule of something like Gallium Arsenide, then slice it into thin round wavers we can grow on. To be specific, I think they use a "horizontal Bridgman" technique, and I don't know what their growth rates are - certainly a WHOLE lot faster than our MBE growth rates!

[@YootSnoot]

@@AlphaPhoenixChannel I studied mechanical engineering in undergrad and it wasn't until this last year that I realized I wanted to continue learning about the atomic properties of materials. When I learned that the reason metals have elastic deformation is because the atoms are literally stretching the bonds before they slip and plastically deform, my mind was blown! I've always thought the way metal boules are cast is fascinating. The level of purity we are able to achieve nowadays is incredible!

[@truegret7778]

As I recall, single-crystalline silcon ingot growers rotate the seed in one direction (say clockwise) and the molten silcon in the cricible anti-clockwise, and slowly pull the seed upward at a rate that defines the diameter of the ingot. Could the same be done with the water "seed" and chilled water "ingot"?

[@Blargthehandsome]

hey, I think your channel will blow up, keep up the good work!

[@Some_Awe]

This is the stuff i needed with chemistry, i had a hard time thinking of it as a seperate subject from physics, but its just physics all the way down

[@SoulDelSol]

Yess, physics is at root of chemistry and chemistry is at root of biology

[@MarcusLucena2010]

i was mesmerized throughout the whole video, incredible work man!

[@fmdj]

Awesome counter-example of publication bias, thanks! Always interesting.

[@sciencoking]

I collect rain water in barrels in my backyard. When the temperature is just right, the water forms a thick ice sheet which crumbles into long approximately hexagonal prisms

[@7177YT]

You got a pretty brilliant channel here mate! Subscribed!

[@999bmxbandit]

Found you from Steve Mould. Great channel, great science, great speaking skills. I’ll definitely be back.

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

Thanks! Glad you found here!

[@sentinel76]

So to my metallurgical mind, you hot-shorted a block of ice. For others: hot shortness in steels occurs when there is a low-melting-point phase mixed in with the steel (iron sulphides, copper* or tin*) that is liquid at rolling temperatures (900ºC-1200ºC). These liquid phases migrate to the boundaries of the steel crystals (or 'grains') and lubricate them, allowing the grains to more easily move relative to each other and reducing the hot strength of steel. *Copper or tin are normally soluble in steel but aren't soluble in iron oxide. If the surface of the hot steel oxidises, the copper/tin comes out of solution as a liquid and penetrates into the grain boundaries of the steel below. This type of hot-shortness shows up as surface defects.

[@noorahmadshinwari4053]

When you pipetted water on to the seed crystal on the aluminum block, some of the water was in direct contact with the aluminum.(it was not all on your seed crystal) That could be how you ended up getting new crystals.

[@bytesandbikes]

Great to see the process! Thanks

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

SCIENCE!

[@J-678hdj]

10:46 for like 20 secs I did not understand a word he said but just the way he speaks with the Pauses and tone for some reason I feel like I understand him.

[@carlosreyes1278]

Excellent, excellent video!! I thoroughly enjoyed it!! You've got a new subscriber!!

[@JanBabiuchHall]

Maybe try adapting the Czochralski method. It's used for growing silicon crystals for semiconductors and also uses a seed crystal lowered from the top. The difference (in addition to what you mentioned about temperature control) is rotating the crystal / bath, which I sus suspect helps prevent dendrites.

[@scottwilliams895]

I have two degrees in materials science, and was impressed by your video! Keep up the great work, and I'll keep watching

[@scottwilliams895]

Now I'm just watching through a bunch of your videos, and I realize you degree is also in materials. That explains why you're so good at explaining it! Cheers, MatE!

[@6754bettkitty]

Crystals are fascinating!

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

So much!

[@SWATforseen]

love your videos please don't never stop sharing and passing on really amazing knowledge an hard work that you put into this I hope and continue to see your videos shine and progress!!

[@FUKTxProductions]

id suggest electrobooms favorite cooling method: peltier electrothermal displacement. they're basically these square pads that, when current is passed through them, go cold on one side and hot on the other. i know that by controlling how much current passes, you can control how hot/cold each side gets. just an idea. let me know if you try it, id like to see the end results!

[@MrMcCoyD4]

Thanks for a great video! Looking forward to the vapor one :)

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

me too... trying to get one more timelapse...

[@atomatopia1]

Might be a cool idea to explore using a ThermoElectric Cooler (TEC) connected to a liquid cooled heat sink . That way you can literally control the flow of energy out of the freezing water

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

Haha check out episode 3

[@atomatopia1]

@@AlphaPhoenixChannel oh sick I’ll do that rn. Right after episode 2, of course!

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

@@atomatopia1 haha this was 2. 1 is the found of freezing. I don’t remember if I bothered to make a playlist at the time…

[@KamilK3]

Well thats awesome, that bubble demonstration and dislocations. The same applies to steel! I did know that, but thats a great way to visualize that, and that explains different properties of welds epending how hot it was and how quick it was cooled. Great channel! I'm happy i got here, you have a new sub ;)

[@jessicamann684]

to make large blocks of clear ice for ice carving, they use a technique involving bubbling air through water while it is in a giant chest freezer.

[@telperion3]

what about adding a peltier cell coupled with a heatsink on the top of the aluminum bar, in room temperature?

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

wait a couple weeks =)

[@tophan5146]

I love the hand-drawn animations

[@TheZombieSaints]

Wow who knew ice was so complicated... Great video

[@je_tai6276]

Do you think the convections movements in the water could create dentrites? Some convection cells would appear and cool the whole water recipient and then, because the thermal isolation with the outside is not perfect, some dentrites could have been created somewhere else. I would suggest to try the same experiment but with the aluminum bar at the bottom of the recipient. Might be a very tricky setup though...

[@brocksamson3282]

your explanation of the defects melting first explains how long vertical crystals of ice can form on frozen lakes as they begin to thaw. Look up "candled ice".

[@yallprettysus]

The Awesome science rabbit whole won't end! Off to 2^19 Subs with you

[@Scrogan]

I’d attempt to do exactly what you did here, except with a peltier cooler and heat-sink atop the aluminium block, and in a refrigerator set to 1-3C or so. Also you’re fast approaching 2^14 !

[@Scrogan]

A small compressor might also be an option, if only for the thermal efficiency. An easier method might be an aluminium (bottomed) container full of salted ice-water, though you’d need to calculate how much ice would be required to solidify the water beneath.

[@Inertia888]

Would a TEC thermoelectric module work, if it was set up to pump the heat way from the metal block, and to the water> Maybe with some heat pipes from on old laptop? I really don't know, I don't really have any intention of trying this myself, since I am already investing my time too thin on my own experiments and projects. Just thinking out loud. It is fun to think. Looking forward to the rest of the experiment. Maybe one day I will give it a try.

[@tootalldan5702]

Nice process. Instead of a magnifier glass, why not use the 3 laser method on each axis to melt the center of the ice. Similar to the acrylic bubble art. As you also mentioned, the pressure change as it is freezing would affect growth. Would a counterweight of the aluminum block also allow equalizing the pressure at the freezing point in the chamber to equalize the surface pressure of the water? I look forward to the next video.

[@simonjelley]

We invented a slush drinks machine that doesn’t need a scraper, instead forming ice in a recirculating flow in a pipe, as the heat transfer is set up to create dendritic ice that is broken off by flow in a pipe. The heat flux and thermal diffusivity together control whether you get wall ice or dendritic ice. If the thermal diffusivity is low and the heat flux is low enough to avoid big thermal gradients, even if the wall is the only cooling surface, an instantaneous quanta of energy is easier to donate to the surrounding fluid so ice grows dendritically. Maybe this is what you encountered?

[@VocalMabiMaple]

I've been binge watching your videos and I just realized why your videos reminded me of something. Do you watch the KZbin channel "Knowing Better"? Your style reminds me of his style, except science instead of politics and history.

[@adcaptandumvulgus4252]

Do you think if you use the silver plating on the aluminum the extra degrees of temperature that would drop would make a difference?

[@labboc]

In the video you mention that ice conducts heat anisotropically. Would the seed crystal conduct better if rotated?

[@wilafau]

I once left a water bottle on the porch and when I went to get it the next morning it was liquid but the moment I touched it the whole thing instantly froze from the top down. Very cool effect. I wonder if this creates a polycrystalline structure or perhaps it produces a single crystal structure as the ice builds from the top down very rapidly? Sadly I was not able to repeat this phenomenon after several attempts. I read somewhere distilled water works best, the fewer contaminants the better.

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

It’s almost certainly polycrystalline and dendritic - my last video about “hearing ice freeze” is exactly the same process you describe, just with a bit more control over the process!

[@falpsdsqglthnsac]

"that's a loud bird" this is the educational content i come to this channel for

[@PabloRomanelli]

Could a Peltier module on the aluminum work? To keep the water outside the fridge and only cool it through the cristal touching the aluminum and the liquid water

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

absolutely! the problem is keeping the cold side of the peltier cold if it's outside the freezer. that's a problem addressed in the next vid!

[@jfischer507]

Can the water be held still in the refrigerator, at 2-3C, instead of the freezer? Maybe alcohol could be pumped through the heat sink below 0C to encourage crystal growth and discourage dendritic growth. Then you can go really slow.

[@8ank3r]

did you consider dipping sort of in the manner of candle making?

[@muntyvalera998]

Wow such an awesome video bud, how have you not got more subscribers, I cant wait to see the video where it worked,

[@jazzdirt]

This is the same I learned in the first year of Material Science engineering... But accessible and fun!

[@MT-ur5dp]

I don't know if you will read this, but I did watch "LAZIEST way to make CLEAR ICE, nobody talks about" by "Just Have a Drink" and he uses an insulated travel cup to make clear ice. It does seem like this freezes the water more directional, with the top being clear and the bottom being cloudy. I am not sure what you used and if it is similar, but maybe your insulation was not good enough. Maybe this method will help with a more directional growth. Or maybe someone else already had a better idea.

[@Sqwince23]

are you sure the problem didn't occur when you were dripping the water on the cold (

[@paulweidler2117]

Perhaps you could use dry ice to cool the aluminum plate. You could keep the apparatus about the same, with a box of dry ice on top in thermal contact with the bar. Then either turn down the freezer or put it in the fridge.

[@ericlotze7724]

If you did something similar to that "Supercooled Water" or a v e r y close thermal gap between the water and air, could you pull/draw an ice crystal from water?

[@maxmustermann5353]

Interesting video, but you were cutting/melting a piece of monocrystaline ice out of the ice block. So I would assume the piece is wet from the cutting. If you're putting it on the cold aluminium bar, the molten water touches the sublimated ice cristals on the aluminum bar and forms many new cristals(Because the bar is much colder than the monocrystaline ice and thus grows faster near the aluminum to dump the heat of crystallization). If you layer on water, to form a bigger cristal, I think you are also growing those cristals bigger, which were formed by the sublimation on the aluminum bar and growen bigger by the molten ice from the cutting. Is that logic or am I just missing something? To prevent that from happening, you could try to just stick it on to the bar, and hang it in the water, without layering the water on before.

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

My goal was that the polycrystalline grains generated when the wet water hit the aluminum would be trapped physically on the other side of the monocrystalline seed, and everything growing from liquid would epitaxially expand the monocrystal. It’s also possible the monocrystal itself was too cold for epitaxy while I pipetted water on it

[@maxmustermann5353]

@@AlphaPhoenixChannel Good idea, but I think that the trapping on the other side doesn't work this way in this case. It seems as if a drop on the side of the monocrystalline ice had frozen on to the aluminum. In my mind this happens: The heat gets carried away by the path of least resistance. In this case there is ice and Aluminum touching the water. Aluminum conducts much better and it already has some resublimated ice crystals as well as the bigger surface area touching the water. It reaches the freezing point and grows from every crystal it touches. As a result the surface has many crystals with different orientations. @ 7:48 you're pipetting over the section where the water froze to the aluminum bar as well as the monocrystaline ice. Both sections are exposed to the water and grow their crystals with it. If hanged in the water bucket, there is now monocrystalline ice aside of polycrystalline trying to outrun each other in the cool water to form the big crystal. The area on the bottom right, where the edge of the cut is interrupted is the area I suspect isn't monocrystalline. Do you know what I mean?

[@autodidact7127]

God dude you are just so intelligent. I will learn so much from you in the coming years. Subbed.

[@jacobhinchliffe6659]

Milo

[@KeithOlson]

My first thought was to, instead of using an aluminum bar, use an aluminum flask that you then pour liquid nitrogen (or w/e) into. That would make the ice attached to the bottom of it the only source of heat reduction for the water. Does that make sense?

[@JohnTrustworthy]

I don't know about others but seeing experiment failiures and explanations for them is more interesting.

[@tophyr]

It looks like the thermal conductivity of ice is about 50x higher than polystyrene foam, but the heat of fusion of water is about 80x its specific heat. So, you were losing the race to freeze the liquid (vs drop its temperature overall) by a factor of about 1.6 - and that without even counting in the massive surface area difference. I suppose thickness of the polystyrene vs size of the original ice crystal would be fairly important here too, but probably (evidently) wouldn't counteract that aforementioned surface area disparity. How do you guys ensure a single nucleation site for monocrystalline growth in your MBE?

[@DackelDelay]

09:03 is it possible that water from the reservoir below or the original seed crystal evaporated/sublimated, attached itself to the aluminium or the rather the small ice crystals besides the big seed crystal fast enough to outgrow or match the crystal formation from the seed, thereby growing additional crystals unalinged with the seed? (which eventually stretch out as far as the original crystal), touching the liquid water below, forming the additional dendrites seen?

[@berto6063]

I use a water distiller for all my cooking and drinking water so naturally I also use it for ice cubes. There's a really strange thing that happens. The ice cubes grow spikes on them. Not all of them, but I've never seen it happen with tap water. What is it with distilled water that would cause it to freeze with spikes growing out of the top of the cubes? You should try it.

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

There’s a fantastic Veritassium video about that! They’re called ice spikes

[@emilyrln]

Very interesting! Ice crystals are so pretty ❤

[@DennisGentry]

Besides using the dendrites to see the crystal grain domains and orientations, you can probably use polarized sunglasses and/or polarized light. (Not sure because I haven't tried it.)

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

I've tried it, but only on polycrystals (didn't realize at the time) so they just kinda glowed...

[@nullproxyproxie4743]

Awee you shoulda tried to use a polarizing filter, it might help in showing details/stresses too.. just a idea!

[@Michael-wm3bk]

If you're not careful, some of your videos are gonna end up being used an a college material science course. Honestly though one of the best visualizations of grain boundaries I've seen.

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

Haha thanks Landon!

[@armyofthewolves]

The thought of someone trying to sputter ice with more ice is so funny to me. I know vapor deposition describes any process which uses, ya know, deposition of a vapor - but still. Tststststs "Ok guys, ice is ready"

[@AJR2208]

Happy Belated New Year. This is a really interesting subject. (so many question)..Are you doing this to experiment with gas separation techniques? Water purity and controlled temperature reduction? Using capillary tubes for crystal growth? I had the honor to speak with people years ago looking into purifying medical & breathing gases in a similar way. Stay safe and well :)

[@scheelescorvid1597]

What about hypercooled water seeded with a single grain crystal after it's been hypercooled, assuming you don't have nucleation sites for the water to crystalize on its own, can that work?

[@SoulDelSol]

Good idea, cooled below freezing point