Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

An Investigation of Freezing of Supercooled Water on Anti-Freeze Protein Modified Surfaces

  • Published:
Journal of Bionic Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This work investigates how functionalization of aluminium surfaces with natural type III Anti-Freeze Protein (AFP) affects the mechanism of heterogeneous ice nucleation. First the bulk ice nucleation properties of distilled water and aqueous solution of AFP were evaluated by differential scanning calorimetry. Then the modified surface was characterized by Secondary Ions Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS), Fourier Transform InfraRed (FTIR) spectroscopy and contact angle measurement. Freezing experiments were then conducted in which water droplets underwent a slow controlled cooling. This study shows that compared to uncoated aluminium, the anti-freeze proteins functionalized surfaces exhibit a higher and narrower range of freezing tempera-ture. It was found that these proteins that keep living organisms from freezing in cold environment act in the opposite way once immobilized on surfaces by promoting ice nucleation. Some suggestions regarding the mechanism of action of the observed phenomena were proposed based on the Classical Nucleation Theory (CNT).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Angell C A. Supercooled water. Annual Review of Physical Chemistry, 1983, 34, 593–630.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Matsumoto M, Saito S, Ohmine I. Molecular dynamics simulation of the ice nucleation and growth process leading to water freezing. Nature, 2002, 416, 409–413.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Page A J, Sear R P. Freezing in the bulk controlled by pre-freezing at a surface. Physical Review E, 2009, 80, 1–5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Sear R P. Nucleation: Theory and applications to protein solutions and colloidal suspensions. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 2007, 19, 1–28.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Zachariassen K E, Kristiansen E. Ice nucleation and antinu-cleation in nature. Cryobiology, 2000, 41, 257–279.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Cheng C H. Evolution of the diverse antifreeze proteins. Current Opinion in Genetics & Development, 1998, 8, 715–720.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Yeh Y, Feeney R E. Antifreeze proteins: Structures and mechanisms of function. Chemical Reviews, 1996, 96, 601–618.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Baardsnes J, Davies P L. Contribution of hydrophobic residues to ice binding by fish type III antifreeze protein. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, 2002, 1601, 49–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Fletcher G L, Hew C L, Davies P L. Antifreeze proteins of teleost fishes. Annual Review of Physiology, 2001, 63, 359–390.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Jia Z, Deluca C I, Chao H, Davies P L. Structural basis for the binding of a globular antifreeze protein to ice. Nature, 1996, 384, 285–288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Yang C, Sharp K A. The mechanism of the type III antifreeze protein action: a computational study. Biophysical Chemis-try, 2004, 109, 137–148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Garnham C P, Campbell R L, Davies P L. Anchored clathrate waters bind antifreeze proteins to ice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011, 108, 7363–7367.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Nutt D R, Smith J C. Dual function of the hydration layer around an antifreeze protein revealed by atomistic molecular dynamics simulations. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2008, 130, 13066–13073.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Mossop S C. The nucleation of supercooled water by various chemicals. Proceedings of the Physical Society, 1955, 69, 165–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Sarkar D K, Farzaneh M. Superhydrophobic coatings with reduced ice adhesion. Journal of Adhesion Science and Technology, 2009, 23, 1215–1237.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Jafari R, Menini R, Farzaneh M. Superhydrophobic and icephobic surfaces prepared by RF-sputtered polytetra-fluoroethylene coatings. Applied Surface Science, 2010, 257, 1540–1543.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Jung S, Dorrestijn M, Raps D, Das A, Megaridis C M, Poulikakos D. Are superhydrophobic surfaces best for icep-hobicity? Langmuir, 2011, 27, 3059–3066.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Esser-Kahn A P, Trang V, Francis M B. Incorporation of antifreeze proteins into polymer coatings using site-selective bioconjugation. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2010, 132, 13264–13269.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Takmakov P, Vlassiouk I, Smirnov S. Application of anodized aluminum in fluorescence detection of biological species. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 2006, 385, 954–958.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Scott A, Gray-Munro J E. The surface chemistry of 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane films deposited on magnesium alloy AZ91. Thin Solid Films, 2009, 517, 6809–6816.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Wood G R, Walton A G. Homogeneous nucleation kinetics of ice from water. Journal of Applied Physics, 1970, 41, 3027–3036.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Mastai Y, Rudloff J, Cölfen H, Antonietti M. Control over the structure of ice and water by block copolymer additives. ChemPhysChem, 2002, 3, 119–123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Mitsuiki M, Mizuno A, Tanimoto H, Motoki M. Relation-ship between the antifreeze activities and the chemical structures of oligo- and poly(glutamic acid)s. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 1998, 46, 891–895.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Baruch E, Belostotskii A M, Mastai Y. Relationship between the antifreeze activities and the chemical structures of polyols. Journal of Molecular Structure, 2008, 874, 170–177.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Kimizuka N, Viriyarattanasak C, Suzuki T. Ice nucleation and supercooling behavior of polymer aqueous solutions. Cryobiology, 2007, 56, 80–87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Charpentier T V J, Neville A, Millner P, Hewson R W, Morina A. Development of anti-icing materials by chemical tailoring of hydrophobic textured metallic surfaces. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 2013, 394, 539–544.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Seeley L H, Seidler G T. Two-dimensional nucleation of ice from supercooled water. Physical Review Letters, 2001, 87, 1–4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Turnbull D, Vonnegut B. Nucleation catalysis. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry, 1952, 44, 1292–1298.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Seeley L H, Seidler G T. Preactivation in the nucleation of ice by Langmuir films of aliphatic alcohols. Journal of Chemical Physics, 2001, 114, 1046–1047.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Liedberg B, Hederos M, Konradsson P, Borgh A. Mimicking the properties of antifreeze glycoproteins: Synthesis and characterization of a model system for ice nucleation and antifreeze studies. Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2005, 109, 15849–15859.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Kobashigawa Y, Nishimiya Y, Miura K, Ohgiya S, Miura A, Tsuda S. A part of ice nucleation protein exhibits the ice-binding ability. FEBS Letters, 2005, 579, 1493–1497.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Engineering Thermofluids, Surfaces and Interfaces (iETSI), Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT, Leeds, UK

    Thibaut V. J. Charpentier, Anne Neville, Paul Millner, Rob Hewson & Ardian Morina

Authors
  1. Thibaut V. J. Charpentier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Anne Neville
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Paul Millner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Rob Hewson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Ardian Morina
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thibaut V. J. Charpentier.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Charpentier, T.V.J., Neville, A., Millner, P. et al. An Investigation of Freezing of Supercooled Water on Anti-Freeze Protein Modified Surfaces. J Bionic Eng 10, 139–147 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1016/S1672-6529(13)60208-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1672-6529(13)60208-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation