Ice shaping properties, similar to that of antifreeze proteins, of a zirconium acetate complex.

Autor: Sylvain Deville, Céline Viazzi, Jérôme Leloup, Audrey Lasalle, Christian Guizard, Eric Maire, Jérôme Adrien, Laurent Gremillard
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2011
Předmět:
Zdroj: PLoS ONE, Vol 6, Iss 10, p e26474 (2011)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1932-6203
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0026474
Popis: The control of the growth morphologies of ice crystals is a critical issue in fields as diverse as biomineralization, medicine, biology, civil or food engineering. Such control can be achieved through the ice-shaping properties of specific compounds. The development of synthetic ice-shaping compounds is inspired by the natural occurrence of such properties exhibited by antifreeze proteins. We reveal how a particular zirconium acetate complex is exhibiting ice-shaping properties very similar to that of antifreeze proteins, albeit being a radically different compound. We use these properties as a bioinspired approach to template unique faceted pores in cellular materials. These results suggest that ice-structuring properties are not exclusive to long organic molecules and should broaden the field of investigations and applications of such substances.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals