Phase separation during freezing upon warming of aqueous solutions

Using differential scanning calorimetry, we show that the addition of solute(s) to emulsified water lowers the freezing temperature to <231 K, the homogeneous nucleation temperature of pure bulk water, or even completely suppresses freezing. In the latter case, freezing upon warming occurs above T-X approximate to 150 K and leads to a phase separation into pure ice and a freeze-concentrated solution (FCS) which crystallizes upon further warming. We also show that emulsified 20-21.5 wt. % HCl solutions and the FCS of HCl/H2O solutions transform to glass at T-g approximate to 127-128 K, i.e., lower than T-g approximate to 136 K of water. We suggest that water nanodrops adsorbed on fumed silica resemble bulk water more than water confined in nanoscaled confinement and also more than nanoscaled water domains in aqueous solution. (C) 2014 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.