How hydrophilic is ice? Contact angles on ice surfaces

One interesting question in ice / water interfaces is to find out exactly how hydrophilic ice surfaces are.  There's some experimental evidence that water droplets don't completely flatten out on ice surfaces, and we'd like to simulate this process in two ways: 1) Simulating direct water droplet spreading on ice / quasi-liquid layer (QLL) interfaces, and 2) finding the surface tensions for gas-liquid, gas-ice, and liquid-ice using molecular dynamics. 

Name of research group, project, or lab
Gezelter lab
Why join this research group or lab?

We're a theoretical / computational chemistry group which develops new methods and new software to get computers to understand chemistry.  Student researchers gain a deep understanding of programming (C++ and python) and simulation techniques. 

Logistics Information:
Project categories
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Student ranks applicable
Junior
Senior
Student qualifications

Students should have seen some physical chemistry, basic physics, at least two semesters of calculus.  No prior programming experience is required, but it is helpful.

Hours per week
1 credit / 3-6 hours
Compensation
Research for Credit
Number of openings
1
Techniques learned

Data analysis techniques, code management via git, C++ / Python programming.

Project start
Fall Semester 2024
Contact Information:
Mentor
gezelter@nd.edu
Name of project director or principal investigator
Dan Gezelter
Email address of project director or principal investigator
gezelter@nd.edu
1 sp. | 1 appl.
Hours per week
1 credit / 3-6 hours
Project categories
Chemistry and Biochemistry