Growth of Ice Crystals in the Presence of Type III Antifreeze Protein

The morphology and growth kinetics of ice single crystals in aqueous solutions of type III antifreeze protein (AFP-III) have been studied in detail over a range of AFP-III concentrations and supercoolings. In pure water, the shape of ice crystals changes from the circular disklike to planar dendritic with increasing supercooling. In AFP-III solutions, ice crystals in the form of faceted plates, irregular dendrites with polygonized tips, and needles appear with increasing supercooling and AFP-III concentration. The growth rate of ice crystals in the crystallographic a direction is 2 orders of magnitude higher than that in the c direction. AFP-III molecules cause the stoppage of the growth of the prismatic and basal faces at low supercoolings. When supercooling exceeds the critical value, AFP-III favors the acceleration of the growth in both a and c directions. The observed behavior of AFP-III is explained in terms of the Cabrera-Vermilyea pinning model and the specificity of the dissipation of latent heat from the growing crystals with different shapes.