Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 18, 2026

Determining the Ice-binding Planes of Antifreeze Proteins by Fluorescence-based Ice Plane Affinity
Published on: January 15, 2014
Chiral distortion of confined ice oligomers (N = 5,6)
Haifeng Ma1, Yun Ding, Marcella Iannuzzi
1Physik-Institut, Universität Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Ice nuclei have been studied on the hexagonal boron nitride nanomesh (h-BN/Rh(111)), a template with 2 nm wide molecule traps. Scanning tunneling microscopy shows confined clusters, where oligomers with three protrusions are particularly abundant. Together with local barrier height dI/dz maps, it is found that the dipoles of the water molecules arrange in a homodrome, which is consistent with density functional theory calculations. Hydrogen bonds toward the substrate identify h-BN/Rh(111) to be hydrophilic. The substrate distorts the hexamers (n = 6) and possibly pentamers (n = 5), where the experimentally observed footprints of the three protrusions appear more chiral than expected.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers
Stereoisomerism of Cyclic Compounds
Fischer Projections
Chirality
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
Conformations of Cyclohexane
The chair form is the most stable and derives its name from its resemblance to the “easy chair.” In the chair conformation, two carbon atoms are arranged out-of-plane — one above and one below, minimizing the torsional strain. In the chair form, the bond angle is very close to the ideal tetrahedral value,...
Prochirality

