The Effect of pH on the Melting Time of Ice

Jhong D ([email protected]), Mah J ([email protected]), Randhawa R ([email protected])

Abstract

The melting point of ice is known to be affected by the presence of impurities. Research has
demonstrated that salt can speed up the melting of ice (Kim and Yethiraj 1). However, there is
not a lot of research available on the effects of pH on the melting point of ice. If low pH is shown
to accelerate the melting of ice, it can have implications for the melting of glaciers as ocean
acidification intensifies globally. In order to evaluate if lower pH ice cubes melt faster, acidic,
basic, and neutral ice cubes were used to record melting time. The time it took for the ice to
display the first signs of melting was measured simultaneously for the three types of ice cubes
and a one-way ANOVA was run using the data collected. We predicted that acidic ice would melt
faster than basic or neutral ice and that neutral ice would melt the slowest. The ANOVA found no
significant difference (p-value = 0.744) in the melting time of the acidic ice compared to the
neutral or basic ice. Therefore, whether acidic melts faster than basic or neutral ice could not be
concluded and the null hypothesis was not rejected.

Introduction

One of the factors that affect the melting point of a solid is the presence of impurities (Gillespie,

“What Factors Affect Melting Point”). A solid that contains impurities will melt at a lower

temperature than a solid that is pure. This is because the impurities lead to structural deficiencies

that decrease the strength of the intermolecular interactions holding the solid together (Gillespie,

“What Factors Affect Melting Point”). Thus, an ice cube that contains impurities will likely melt

faster than an ice cube made from water with no additional additives. This effect can be observed

 in ice cubes that contain salt. A study conducted by Kim and Yethiraj found that ice crystals melt

rapidly in the presence of salt and this melting is largely due to the ion-water interactions.

However, Kim and Yethiraj (6) also noted that the ions affect the melting of crystals differently.

For example, in their study, they found that the Cl- ions affected the melting of ice more actively

than Na+ ions because they are more readily accepted into the crystal lattice. In this study, we

investigate the effect that pH may have on the melting time of ice cubes. Specifically, we

designed this experiment to answer the following question: will an acidic ice cube melt faster

than a basic or neutral ice cube? We also formulated the following hypothesis: if a lower pH

speeds up the melting time of an ice cube then an acidic ice cube will melt faster than a basic or

neutral ice cube. The null hypothesis is that the melting time of the acidic, basic and neutral ice

cube does not differ significantly. We predicted that acidic ice would melt faster than basic or

neutral ice and that neutral ice would melt the slowest. We are interested in studying these effects

because prior research has focused solely on salt ions and research on the effects of pH on the

melting of ice is lacking. We believe this topic can have important implications for the melting of

glaciers. Over the years, anthropogenic CO2 levels have been rising. The polar seas are

especially sensitive to acidification due to their weak carbonate buffering capacity due to lower

alkalinity (Shadwick et al. 2013). With increasing ocean acidification, it is important to study the

effects that acidic water can have on ice. If acids can speed up melting then the ice caps located

in/near acidic waters will melt quicker. The melting ice from the glaciers will freshen up

seawater and reduce the buffering capacity further leaving it more vulnerable to effects of

acidification (Katz, “Why Rising Acidification Poses a Special Peril for Warming Arctic

Waters.”).

 Methods

In our kitchens, we first measured and poured one cup of water into three cups, labelling them as

acidic, basic and neutral. In this case, neutral was our control group. Within the acidic cup, we

added one teaspoon of vinegar then mixed it well. To create the basic cup, we poured another cup

of water into a separate cup and added one drop of liquid soap and mixed well to create a soapy

solution. We then took one teaspoon of that soapy solution and added that to the cup labelled as

basic and mixed well. The neutral cup which serves as the control group will not have any

solution added to it. An ice cube tray was labelled as Group A (acidic) for the first two molds,

Group B (basic) for the second two molds, and Group C (neutral) for the next two molds (Figure

1). The solutions were then poured into the corresponding molds for a total of four ice cubes for

each treatment group. The ice cube tray was then placed into the freezer until everything was

completely frozen. A surface was then thoroughly cleaned and labelled with acid, basic and

neutral prior to placing the ice cubes on it to be melted. One ice cube from each treatment group

was placed above the correct labels and the time at which the “first melt” occurred was recorded.

The “first melt” is described as the moment that there is a visible pooling around the ice cube.

Ice cubes that were not being recorded at the moment are then placed back into the freezer for

the next trial. The experiment was then repeated three more times, with the surface thoroughly

cleaned between trials. Once the data was compiled, we ran a one-way ANOVA test. If the one-

way ANOVA said the results were significantly different with an alpha value of 0.05 or less, then

we planned on running a Tukey-Kramer test to find out which means are significantly different.

 Figure 1. Reference diagram for labelling the ice cube tray.

Results

We find that basic ice cubes on average melted the fastest with a mean of 171.08 seconds (Figure

2). Basic ice cubes melt 18.6% faster than acidic cubes at 210.33 seconds and 12.5% faster than

neutral cubes at 195.50 seconds. This suggests that the lower pH ice cubes melt slower than

higher pH ice cubes. Using a one-way ANOVA test, we find that the p-value corresponding to the

F-statistic of one-way ANOVA is 0.744. This p-value is higher than 0.05, our chosen alpha value.

Figure 2. Mean time (s) of ice cubes melting time. Acidic (N=12) ice cubes frozen with 1 tsp of

vinegar, Basic (N=12) ice cubes frozen with 1 tsp of soapy water, and Neutral (N=12) frozen

from neutral water. Bars represent standard deviations of ±141.6143 s for the Acidic treatment,

±106.6212 s for the Basic treatment, and ±126.3807 s for the Neutral treatment.

Figure 3. Sample Calculation for one-way ANOVA test, sum of squares within groups.

 Discussion

The effect of salt ions on the melting time of ice has been studied extensively however there is

not a lot of research that looks into the effects of pH of ice on its melting time. The purpose of

our study was to address the lack of research on this topic and gain an understanding of how pH

influences the melting time of ice. The results of our study were unexpected. The mean melting

time was the highest for acidic ice cubes and the lowest for basic ice cubes. The effect observed

was that lower pH increased melting time. We had predicted that the neutral ice cube would have

the highest mean melting time because it did not contain any added impurities and thus would be

relatively pure compared to the other two groups. Understanding how salt changes the freezing

temperature of water led us to form predictions about how acids and bases might affect the

melting time of ice. Salt lowers the freezing temperature of water by interfering with how water

molecules enter and leave the crystal lattice structure of ice (“How Does Salt Lower the Freezing

Point of Water?”). Salts reduce the number of water molecules that are present at the liquid/solid

interface (“How Does Salt Lower the Freezing Point of Water?”). Through this interaction, salt

can increase the melting of ice. The assumption that our prediction rested on was that adding

acids and bases would interrupt the equilibrium of ice in the same way that salt does and thus

result in faster melting times. Another assumption we made is that a lower pH will disrupt this

equilibrium more than a higher pH. After running the one-way ANOVA test on the data collected,

we obtained a p-value of 0.744. This reveals that the difference between the melting times of the

acidic, basic, and neutral groups is not significant at the 0.05 significance level. Thus, we cannot

reject our null hypothesis, and we also fail to support our alternative hypothesis that the melting

time of the acidic, basic and neutral ice cubes does differ significantly.

In our experiment, one member found large discrepancies in their data as compared to the

average datasets. That member’s average melting time was found to be nearly 90% less than the

other members’ observed melting times. We hypothesized that water hardness could be an

influencing factor and that the water that member’s used was perhaps softer than the other two

experimenters. According to John Tomcyk, hard water reduces the ice hardness and cooling

capacity because of the higher mineral content in the ice. Vancouver has a range of hardness

levels from 7.9-11.8 mg/L (“Water Hardness Level By City - British Columbia”). However,

Surrey from its Water System Annual Report 2019, has an approximate water hardness level of

1.5-3.8 mg/L (City of Surrey). This shows approximately an 8 mg/L difference between the two

city water hardness levels. The researcher that had large discrepancies in data used tap water

from Surrey’s system, whereas the other members had used tap water from Vancouver’s system.

Interestingly, the two experimenters that used tap water from Vancouver both have similar ranges

of data. The lower level in water hardness could be an attribute that caused their ice cubes to melt

significantly faster relative to ice cubes from a different region. This difference in data could also

influence our ANOVA analysis which resulted in our data to be not significant.

One limitation of this study was that the experimental trials were conducted at three different

locations which makes it difficult to control for different environmental factors such as the size

of the ice cubes from the ice cube tray and pressure as well as standardized measurement

 equipment. A source of uncertainty stems from how we characterized melting time as it was still

subjective to how we interpreted what a pool of liquid constitutes. A possible source of error was

the inability to keep the ambient temperature constant which could cause big differences between

melting times even between the same pH ice cubes for one member.

Conclusion

The results from our study on the effects of pH on the melting time of ice cubes did not provide

support for our hypothesis nor did they allow us to reject the null hypothesis. We hypothesized

that if lower pH speeds up the melting time of an ice cube then an acidic ice cube will melt faster

than a basic or neutral ice cube. However, we found that basic ice cubes melted faster on average

than both acidic and neutral ice cubes, and acidic ice cubes to melt slower on average contrary to

our prediction. This means that our data does not support our prediction or hypothesis. The

differences between the three groups (acidic, basic, or neutral ice cubes) were also found to be

statistically insignificant, so we cannot say with certainty that pH is an influencing factor on

melting ice. Further investigation is required in order to fully understand the effects of low pH on

the melting of the polar ice caps.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the University of British Columbia (UBC) who gave us the

opportunity to conduct this research. We would like to thank Dr. Celeste Leander, as well as the

entire teaching staff of BIOL342, Tessa Blanchard, and Anne Kim, for supporting, facilitating,

and guiding us through this research process. We would also like to thank our peers for providing

feedback on our draft. Finally, we would like to recognize that UBC Point Grey (Vancouver)

campus sits on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xwməθkwəy̓ əm

(Musqueam) People.

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 Appendix A

Figure 4. Darren’s individual trial data.

Figure 5. Reshmin’s individual trial data.

Figure 6. Jonathan’s individual trial data.

 Figure 7. Combined trial data.

 Appendix B

Figure 8. Mean and standard deviation values calculated with GraphPad Prism.

Figure 9. ANOVA Table results calculated with GraphPad Prism