nucleation

anti-icing

antifreeze

fingerprinting

unpaid

plague_138650

palynological_113258

tubular cells

Accounts of Chemical Research

Ice formation, mainly consisting of ice nucleation, ice growth, and ice recrystallization, is ubiquitous and crucial in wide-ranging fields from cryobiology to atmospheric physics. Despite active research for more than a century, the mechanism of ice formation is still far from satisfactory. Meanwhile, nature has unique ways of controlling ice formation and can provide resourceful avenues to unravel the mechanism of ice formation. For instance, antifreeze proteins (AFPs) protect living organisms from freezing damage via controlling ice formation, for example, tuning ice nucleation, shaping ice crystals, and inhibiting ice growth and recrystallization. In addition, AFP mimics can have applications in cryopreservation of cells, tissues, and organs, food storage, and anti-icing materials. Therefore, continuous efforts have been made to understand the mechanism of AFPs and design AFP inspired materials. In this Account, we first review our recent research progress in understanding the mechanism of AFPs in controlling ice formation. A Janus effect of AFPs on ice nucleation was discovered, which was achieved via selectively tethering the ice-binding face (IBF) or the non-ice-binding face (NIBF) of AFPs to solid surfaces and investigating specifically the effect of the other face on ice nucleation. Through molecular dynamics (MD) simulation analysis, we observed ordered hexagonal ice-like water structure atop the IBF and disordered water structure atop the NIBF. Therefore, we conclude that the interfacial water plays a critical role in controlling ice formation. Next, we discuss the design and fabrication of AFP mimics with capabilities in tuning ice nucleation and controlling ice shape and growth, as well as inhibiting ice recrystallization. For example, we tuned ice nucleation via modifying solid surfaces with supercharged unfolded polypeptides (SUPs) and polyelectrolyte brushes (PBs) with different counterions. We found graphene oxide (GO) and oxidized quasi-carbon nitride quantum dots (OQCNs) had profound effects in...

Bioinspired Materials for Controlling Ice Nucleation, Growth, and Recrystallization