TY - JOUR
T1 - Unraveling Molecular Mechanism on Dilute Surfactant Solution Controlled Ice Recrystallization
AU - Fan, Qingrui
AU - Gao, Yurui
AU - Zhu, Chongqin
AU - Liu, Jie
AU - Zhao, Lishan
AU - Mao, Junqiang
AU - Wu, Shuwang
AU - Xue, Han
AU - Francisco, Joseph S.
AU - Zeng, Xiao Cheng
AU - Wang, Jianjun
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from National Key R&D Program of China 2018YFA0208502 and Chinese National Nature Science Foundation (51925307 and 21733010). X.C.Z. and J.S.F. acknowledge the support by the US National Science Foundation (CHE-1665324) and University of Nebraska Holland Computing Center.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2020/2/25
Y1 - 2020/2/25
N2 - Ice recrystallization (IR) is ubiquitous, playing an important role in many areas of science, such as cryobiology, food science, and atmospheric physics. However, controllable ice recrystallization remains a challenging task largely due to an incomplete understanding of the physical mechanism associated with ice recrystallization. Herein, we explore the molecular mechanism underlying the controlling of ice recrystallization by using different small amphiphilic molecules (surfactants) through joint experimental measurements and molecular dynamics simulation. Our experiment shows that in nonionic/zwitterionic surfactant solutions, the mean size of the recrystallized ice grains increases monotonically with the concentration of surfactants, whereas in the ionic surfactant solutions, the mean size of the recrystallized ice grains tends to increase first and then decrease with increasing the concentration, yielding a peak typically at ∼5 μM. Further sequential ice affinity purification experiments and molecular dynamics simulations show that the surfactants actually do not bind to ice directly. Rather, the different spatial distributions of counter ions and molecular surfactants in the interfacial regions (ice-water interface and water-air interface) and bulk region can markedly affect the mean size of the recrystallized ice grain.
AB - Ice recrystallization (IR) is ubiquitous, playing an important role in many areas of science, such as cryobiology, food science, and atmospheric physics. However, controllable ice recrystallization remains a challenging task largely due to an incomplete understanding of the physical mechanism associated with ice recrystallization. Herein, we explore the molecular mechanism underlying the controlling of ice recrystallization by using different small amphiphilic molecules (surfactants) through joint experimental measurements and molecular dynamics simulation. Our experiment shows that in nonionic/zwitterionic surfactant solutions, the mean size of the recrystallized ice grains increases monotonically with the concentration of surfactants, whereas in the ionic surfactant solutions, the mean size of the recrystallized ice grains tends to increase first and then decrease with increasing the concentration, yielding a peak typically at ∼5 μM. Further sequential ice affinity purification experiments and molecular dynamics simulations show that the surfactants actually do not bind to ice directly. Rather, the different spatial distributions of counter ions and molecular surfactants in the interfacial regions (ice-water interface and water-air interface) and bulk region can markedly affect the mean size of the recrystallized ice grain.
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U2 - 10.1021/acs.langmuir.9b03417
DO - 10.1021/acs.langmuir.9b03417
M3 - Article
C2 - 32008324
AN - SCOPUS:85081029852
VL - 36
SP - 1691
EP - 1698
JO - Langmuir
JF - Langmuir
SN - 0743-7463
IS - 7
ER -