[APJohnson]

Hi there,

I was wondering if there is any chemical experiment where water freezes into ice very quickly. The water must be liquid, so I am looking for a reaction with other chemicals in order to freeze it.

Kind regards,
Johnson

[AWK]

With liquid nitrogen you need a few seconds.

[heyhey]

Just to go further with what someone else was saying, you can gather some glass beakers with water and then dip the beakers in liquid nitrogen (no, don't put liquid nitrogen IN the beaker). Wait around 10 seconds and take it out. Do not put it in for any longer, otherwise the glass might shatter!

[Enthalpy]

Subcooled water (liquid below 0°C) can freeze instantly, especialy when a plane flies through a cloud. Though, only a part of the liquid freezes, while the other part serves to absorb the heat released by freezing.

If a process evacuates the freezing heat through the thickness of the already produced ice, growth gets slower over time (as sqrt(t)), and while a very cold sink accelerates the process, it won't achieve a big thickness. Industrially, the cold sink is like -5°C or -10°C to stay energy-efficient, and then a machine achieves only 2*50mm thickness overnight. An other option would be to cool down from the sde of the newly formed ice, like when black ice forms. Description there:
http://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?topic=46384.msg257744#msg257744