Water/ice phase transition: the role of Zirconium Acetate, a compound with ice-shaping properties

Abstract

Few compounds feature ice-shaping properties. The only compound reported to have ice-shaping properties similar to that of ice-shaping proteins, encountered in many organisms living at low temperature, is Zirconium Acetate. When a Zirconium Acetate solution is frozen, oriented and perfectly hexagonal ice crystals can be formed and their growth follows the temperature gradient. To shed light on the water/ice phase transition while freezing Zirconium Acetate solution we carried out differential scanning calorimetry measurements. From our results, we estimate how many water molecules do not freeze because of their interaction with Zr cations. We estimate the colligative properties of the Zr concentration on the apparent critical temperature. We further show the phase transition is unaffected by the nature of the base which is used to adjust the pH. Our results provide thus new hints on the ice-shaping mechanism of Zirconium Acetate.