Growth of Ice Crystals in the Presence of Type III Antifreeze Protein

摘要

The morphology and growth kinetics of ice single crystals in aqueous solutions of type III antifreeze protein (AFP-III) have been studied in detail over a range of AFP-III concentrations and supercoolings. In pure water, the shape of ice crystals changes from the circular disklike to planar dendritic with increasing supercooling. In AFP-III solutions, ice crystals in the form of faceted plates, irregular dendrites with polygonized tips, and needles appear with increasing supercooling and AFP-III concentration. The growth rate of ice crystals in the crystallographic a direction is 2 orders of magnitude higher than that in the c direction. AFP-III molecules cause the stoppage of the growth of the prismatic and basal faces at low supercoolings. When supercooling exceeds the critical value, AFP-III favors the acceleration of the growth in both a and c directions. The observed behavior of AFP-III is explained in terms of the Cabrera-Vermilyea pinning model and the specificity of the dissipation of latent heat from the growing crystals with different shapes.