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Updated: Jun 16, 2025

Determining the Ice-binding Planes of Antifreeze Proteins by Fluorescence-based Ice Plane Affinity
Published on: January 15, 2014
Direct Visualization of Molecular Stacking in Quasi-2D Hexagonal Ice
Yangrui Liu1, Yun Li2,3, Jing Wu4
1Information Materials and Intelligent Sensing Laboratory of Anhui Province, Leibniz International Joint Research Center of Materials Sciences of Anhui Province, Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei 230601, China.
Abstract:
Understanding ice nucleation and growth is of great interest to researchers due to its importance in the biological, cryopreservation, and environmental fields. However, microstructural investigations of ice on the molecular scale are still lacking. In this paper, a simple method is proposed to prepare quasi-2-dimensional ice Ih films, which have been characterized via cryogenic transmission electron microscope. The intersecting stacking faults of basal (BSF) and prismatic (PSF) types have been directly visualized and resolved with a notable first-time report of PSF in ice Ih. Moreover, the possible growth pathways of BSF, namely, the Ic phase, were elucidated by the theoretical calculations and the chair conformation of H2O molecules. This study offers valuable insights that can enhance researchers' understanding of the growth kinetics of crystalline ice.
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