The nucleation of ice in supercooled D2O and H2O

The discussion of the experimental results is based on kinetic arguments in the frame of a two-state model of liquid water. The homogeneous nucleation rate J is tantamount to a volume-normalized apparent first-order rate constant J⁎ which can be described by the product of the genuine rate constant j and an overall equilibrium constant K. K describes a large number of pre-equilibria, which are coupled to the rate-determining step of nucleation and influence the apparent nucleation rate J of formation of the critical germ.