An Ice Christmas Tree: Fast Three-Dimensional Printing of Ice Structures via Evaporative Cooling in Vacuum
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arXiv
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
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| _version_ | 1866915679284756480 |
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| author | Demmenie, Menno Kooij, Stefan Bonn, Daniel |
| author_facet | Demmenie, Menno Kooij, Stefan Bonn, Daniel |
| contents | We demonstrate a novel approach to three-dimensional (3D) printing of freeform ice structures by exploiting evaporative cooling. A micrometer-sized water jet is used to 3D print inside a vacuum chamber. The reduced ambient pressure leads to rapid evaporation of the extruded water, extracting latent heat, and quickly cooling the water well below 0 °C. Once deposited, the water freezes almost instantaneously into stable ice structures. We demonstrate high-fidelity printing of complex geometries (Christmas trees, cones, vertical pillars, and free-standing zigzag structures) without cryogenic infrastructure, supporting materials, or external refrigeration. This approach directly visualizes fundamental thermodynamic principles -- latent heat, evaporative cooling, and pressure-dependent phase transitions -- while offering a relatively simple and scalable platform for ice-templated microfluidics and tissue engineering, or even extraterrestrial 3D printing. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_14580 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | An Ice Christmas Tree: Fast Three-Dimensional Printing of Ice Structures via Evaporative Cooling in Vacuum Demmenie, Menno Kooij, Stefan Bonn, Daniel Fluid Dynamics Space Physics We demonstrate a novel approach to three-dimensional (3D) printing of freeform ice structures by exploiting evaporative cooling. A micrometer-sized water jet is used to 3D print inside a vacuum chamber. The reduced ambient pressure leads to rapid evaporation of the extruded water, extracting latent heat, and quickly cooling the water well below 0 °C. Once deposited, the water freezes almost instantaneously into stable ice structures. We demonstrate high-fidelity printing of complex geometries (Christmas trees, cones, vertical pillars, and free-standing zigzag structures) without cryogenic infrastructure, supporting materials, or external refrigeration. This approach directly visualizes fundamental thermodynamic principles -- latent heat, evaporative cooling, and pressure-dependent phase transitions -- while offering a relatively simple and scalable platform for ice-templated microfluidics and tissue engineering, or even extraterrestrial 3D printing. |
| title | An Ice Christmas Tree: Fast Three-Dimensional Printing of Ice Structures via Evaporative Cooling in Vacuum |
| topic | Fluid Dynamics Space Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.14580 |