Ice Crystals Edited by Yoshinori Furukawa Printed Edition of the Special Issue Published in Crystals www.mdpi.com/journal/crystals Ice Crystals Ice Crystals Special Issue Editor Yoshinori Furukawa MDPI • Basel • Beijing • Wuhan • Barcelona • Belgrade Special Issue Editor Yoshinori Furukawa Hokkaido University Japan Editorial Office MDPI St. Alban-Anlage 66 4052 Basel, Switzerland This is a reprint of articles from the Special Issue published online in the open access journal Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352) in 2019 (available at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/crystals/special issues/Ice Crystals). For citation purposes, cite each article independently as indicated on the article page online and as indicated below: LastName, A.A.; LastName, B.B.; LastName, C.C. Article Title. Journal Name Year, Article Number, Page Range. ISBN 978-3-03921-890-5 (Pbk) ISBN 978-3-03921-891-2 (PDF) c 2019 by the authors. Articles in this book are Open Access and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. The book as a whole is distributed by MDPI under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. Contents About the Special Issue Editor ...................................... vii Yoshinori Furukawa Ice Crystals Reprinted from: Crystals 2019, 9, 540, doi:10.3390/cryst9100540 .................... 1 Adiel F. Perez, Kyle R. Taing, Justin C. Quon, Antonia Flores and Yong Ba Effect of Type I Antifreeze Proteins on the Freezing and Melting Processes of Cryoprotective Solutions Studied by Site-Directed Spin Labeling Technique Reprinted from: Crystals 2019, 9, 352, doi:10.3390/cryst9070352 .................... 3 Jingyi Mo, Robert D. Groot, Graham McCartney, Enyu Guo, Julian Bent, Gerard van Dalen, Peter Schuetz, Peter Rockett and Peter D. Lee Ice Crystal Coarsening in Ice Cream during Cooling: A Comparison of Theory and Experiment Reprinted from: Crystals 2019, 9, 321, doi:10.3390/cryst9060321 .................... 18 Qiang Zeng and Kefei Li Quasi-Liquid Layer on Ice and Its Effect on the Confined Freezing of Porous Materials Reprinted from: Crystals 2019, 9, 250, doi:10.3390/cryst9050250 .................... 32 Negative Thermal Expansivity of Ice: Comparison of the Monatomic mW Model with the All-Atom TIP4P/2005 Water Model Reprinted from: Crystals 2019, 9, 248, doi:10.3390/cryst9050248 .................... 48 Lihua Wan, Xuebing Zhou, Peili Chen, Xiaoya Zang, Deqing Liang and Jinan Guan Decomposition Characterizations of Methane Hydrate Confined inside Nanoscale Pores of Silica Gel below 273.15 K Reprinted from: Crystals 2019, 9, 200, doi:10.3390/cryst9040200 .................... 59 Kenji Mochizuki and Masakazu Matsumoto Collective Transformation of Water between Hyperactive Antifreeze Proteins: RiAFPs Reprinted from: Crystals 2019, 9, 188, doi:10.3390/cryst9040188 ................... 76 Jinxiang Liu, Yujie Yan, Youguo Yan and Jun Zhang · Tetrahydrofuran (THF)-Mediated Structure of THF (H2O)n=1–10: A Computational Study on the Formation of the THF Hydrate Reprinted from: Crystals 2019, 9, 73, doi:10.3390/cryst9020073 .................... 86 v About the Special Issue Editor Yoshinori Furukawa is Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Low Temperature Science (ILTS) at Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1981 in Geophysics at Hokkaido University, where he earlier graduated. Prof. Furukawa has pursued his professional carrier in research at the ILTS from 1978 to 2016 and has been the Director of ILTS in the period of 2011–2014. He has been Visiting Scientist at the Desert Research Institute at the University of Nevada System (USA, 1985–1987) as well as the University of Washington, (USA 1995). He has been also Visiting Professor at the Institute for Solid State Physics at the University of Tokyo (Japan, 2002) and at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Japan, 2007–2010). He has served as President of the Japanese Association for Crystal Growth (JACG, 2012–2014). He is also Associate Editor for the Journal of Crystal Growth (2006–present). He received the Award of the Japanese Society of Snow and Ice (1991), the JACG Best Paper Award (1994), the Best Paper Award of the Society for Science on Form, Japan (2015), and numerous other accolades. Concerning ice, his research is focused on crystal growth, surface structure and pattern formation. In 2008, he successfully demonstrated, for the first time, ice crystal growth at the International Space Station. vii crystals Editorial Ice Crystals Yoshinori Furukawa Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0819, Japan; [email protected] Received: 17 October 2019; Accepted: 19 October 2019; Published: 19 October 2019 Abstract: The special issue on “Ice Crystals” includes seven contributed papers, which give the wide varieties of topics related to ice crystals. They focus on the interface structure of ice, the physical properties of hydrate crystals and the freezing properties of water controlled by antifreeze proteins. The present issue can be considered as a status report reviewing the research that has been made recently on ice crystals. These papers provide research information about the recent development of ice crystal research to readers. Keywords: ice crystal Ice crystals are the most ubiquitous material in the cryosphere environment of the Earth, in the planetary system, and also in our daily lives. In recent years, ice crystals have increased in importance as one of the key materials for finding solutions to settle various environmental concerns at a global scale. Furthermore, ice crystals are also expected as one of the unique materials which are extremely useful to various applications, for example, the food sciences, medical sciences, and other various fields. Dealing with these interesting subjects, research on ice crystals has been more actively pursued in recent years. Since research on ice crystals is included in many different fields, communications and discussions among researchers are not sufficient, nor are they smooth. Publications related to ice crystals are also distributed in various journals, such as those dealing with physics, chemistry, biology, geoscience, planetary science, crystal growth, and others. Consequently, this special issue will provide a platform for discussion among the researchers working in different fields. This special issue may include various subjects related to the structures, phase transitions, surface and interfaces, defects, crystal growth, clathrate hydrate, chemical properties, biological aspects, glaciological aspects, planetary aspects, and others for ice crystals, studied by theoretical, experimental, numerical and observational methods. This special issue presents seven papers, covering phase transition, surface and interface, clathrate, and biological aspects. Here we will briefly summarize the contents of papers appeared in this issue. Two contributions related to the structures and physical properties of ice crystals confined in nanoscale porous materials. Zeng and Li [1] discussed the formation of the quasi-liquid layer (QLL) at the interface between the confined ice and the pore walls. Freezing of the water confined in thin pores can be destructive to the porous frame, but the effect of QLL remains still far from being fully understood. They clarified that the existence of QLL at the interface narrows the gaps between the predicted and measured freezing deformations. On the other hand, Wan et al. [2] discussed the decomposition of methane hydrate confined inside the nanoscale pores of silica gel. Computer simulation studies for ice crystals are important in order to understand the structure and the dynamic properties of ice. This special issue includes three interesting papers related to the computer simulation. Huda et al. [3] discussed the origin of negative thermal expansivity of ice crystal, which has been experimentally observed at low temperature conditions. They first showed that the original monatomic water model using the quasi-harmonic approximation could not this Crystals 2019, 9, 540; doi:10.3390/cryst91005401 www.mdpi.com/journal/crystals Crystals 2019, 9, 540 property of ice, but a simple prescription, namely re-adjusting a so-called tetrahedrality parameter, proposed to recover the negative thermal expansion. This is an interesting result to understand on of the mysterious ice crystal properties. Liu et al. [4] discussed the formation mechanism of THF hydrate based on the ab initio calculations and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. They found that weak hydrogen bonds exist between THF and water molecules. This finding suggests that the THF can promote water molecules from the planar pentagonal or hexagonal ring. On the other hand, Mochizuki and Matsumoto [5] presents an interesting paper related to the activities of antifreeze proteins. It is well-known that antifreeze proteins protect organisms living in subzero environments from freezing injury, which render them potential applications for cryopreservation of living cells, organs, and tissues. They clarified that the water molecules confined between a pair of insect hyperactive antifreeze proteins is discontinuously expelled as the two proteins approach each other at a certain distance. Another article related to the antifreeze protein was presented