Melting point of ice at 1 atmosphere of pressure is very close to ; this is also known as the ice point. In the presence of nucleating substances, the freezing point of water is not always the same as the melting point. In the absence of nucleators water can exist as a supercooled liquid down to −48.3 °C (−55 °F, 224.8 K) before freezing. The chemical element with the highest melting point is tungsten, at ; this property makes tungsten excellent for use as filaments in light bulbs. The often-cited carbon does not melt at ambient pressure but sublimes at about ;
Melting-point depression predicts a sharp, unmoving interface between the solid and liquid phases at a given temperature. The exact thickness of the liquid layer at a given temperature is the equilibrium point between the competing Landau potentials. Equation 5 gives the condition at which an entire nanoparticle melts according to the LSN model. formula_5 Where: d=atomic diameter The liquid nucleation and growth model (LNG) treats nanoparticle melting as a surface initiated process. The surface melts initially, and the liquid-solid interface quickly advances through the entire nanoparticle. The LNG defines melting conditions through the Gibbs-Duhem relations, yielding a melting temperature function dependent on