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Phenomena at the advancing ice-liquid interface: solutes, particles and biological cells
1Helmholtz-Institut für Biomedizinische Technik, Rheinisch-West fälischen Technischen Hochschule Aachen, West-Germany.
Quarterly Reviews of Biophysics
|May 1, 1988
Summary
Freezing causes significant changes in liquids, affecting salts, gases, and particles. These effects are crucial for understanding cryopreservation and cell survival during freezing processes.
Area of Science:
- Physical Chemistry
- Biophysics
- Materials Science
Background:
- Ice formation in solutions alters solute distribution, gas behavior, and particle interactions.
- These physical changes impact biological cells during freezing, relevant to cryopreservation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the physical processes occurring during ice formation in aqueous systems.
- To understand the effects of freezing on biological cells and their implications for cryopreservation.
Main Methods:
- Modeling transient heat conduction and solute diffusion with a planar ice front.
- Analyzing non-planar solidification using heat transfer models.
- Estimating gas solute rejection using a test bubble method.
- Characterizing particle and cell interactions with an advancing ice front.
Main Results:
- A model accurately predicted salt concentration profiles during freezing.
- Gas bubble nucleation and growth were observed, with radii dependent on ice front velocity.
- A critical velocity determined the transition between particle repulsion and entrapment.
- Cell volume reduction during freezing agreed with water transport models.
- Threshold cooling rates predict intracellular ice formation probability.
Conclusions:
- Ice formation involves complex physical phenomena affecting solutes, gases, and particles.
- Understanding these phenomena is vital for optimizing cryopreservation techniques.
- Freezing effects on cells, including volume changes and intracellular ice formation, can be modeled and predicted.