Laboratoire de Synthèse et Fonctionnalisation des Céramiques, UMR3080 CNRS/Saint-Gobain, Cavaillon, France.
Langmuir. 2012 Oct 23;28(42):14892-8. doi: 10.1021/la302275d. Epub 2012 Aug 20.
The control of ice nucleation and growth is critical in many natural and engineering situations. However, very few compounds are able to interact directly with the surface of ice crystals. Ice-structuring proteins, found in certain fish, plants, and insects, bind to the surface of ice, thereby controlling their growth. We recently revealed the ice-structuring properties of zirconium acetate, which are similar to those of ice-structuring proteins. Because zirconium acetate is a salt and therefore different from proteins having ice-structuring properties, its ice-structuring mechanism remains unelucidated. Here we investigate this ice-structuring mechanism through the role of the concentration of zirconium acetate and the ice crystal growth velocity. We then explore other compounds presenting similar functional groups (acetate, hydroxyl, or carboxylic groups). On the basis of these results, we propose that zirconium acetate adopts a hydroxy-bridged polymer structure that can bind to the surface of the ice crystals through hydrogen bonding, thereby slowing down the ice crystal growth.
冰成核和生长的控制在许多自然和工程情况下都至关重要。然而，很少有化合物能够直接与冰晶表面相互作用。在某些鱼类、植物和昆虫中发现的冰结构蛋白与冰表面结合，从而控制其生长。我们最近揭示了乙酸锆的冰结构特性，其与冰结构蛋白的特性相似。由于乙酸锆是一种盐，因此与具有冰结构特性的蛋白质不同，其冰结构机制仍未阐明。在这里，我们通过乙酸锆的浓度和冰晶生长速度的作用来研究这种冰结构机制。然后，我们探索了具有相似官能团（乙酸盐、羟基或羧基）的其他化合物。基于这些结果，我们提出乙酸锆采用羟基桥接聚合物结构，通过氢键与冰晶表面结合，从而减缓冰晶的生长。
