Ice-structuring mechanism for zirconium acetate.

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.

Ice shaping properties, similar to that of antifreeze proteins, of a zirconium acetate complex.

The control of the growth morphologies of ice crystals is a critical issue in fields as diverse as biomineralization, medicine, biology, civil or food engineering. Such control can be achieved through the ice-shaping properties of specific compounds. The development of synthetic ice-shaping compounds is inspired by the natural occurrence of such properties exhibited by antifreeze proteins. We reveal how a particular zirconium acetate complex is exhibiting ice-shaping properties very similar to that of antifreeze proteins, albeit being a radically different compound. We use these properties as a bioinspired approach to template unique faceted pores in cellular materials. These results suggest that ice-structuring properties are not exclusive to long organic molecules and should broaden the field of investigations and applications of such substances.