Ice-Free in Icy Worlds: Discovery Could Lead to Ice-Free Bionic Surfaces

upstart writes:

Ice-Free in Icy Worlds: Discovery Could Lead to Ice-Free Bionic Surfaces:

Antarctic waters have conditions in which objects and living creatures can freeze even under water. This is a major problem for marine travel in polar regions. So-called supercooled water has a temperature just below the freezing point. Due to the high salt content, water in Antarctica has a freezing point of about -1.9 C, but is about 0.05 C colder. The smallest disturbances such as grains of sand or surfaces can cause this supercooled water to freeze - with sometimes fatal consequences for creatures that cannot survive frozen.

The Antarctic scallop "Adamussium colbecki" resists this, as chemist Konrad Meister knows. Meister is a professor at the University of Alaska and heads a research group in Mischa Bonn's department at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) in Mainz. During an expedition in Antarctica, divers drew his attention to the scallop with the efficient ice protection mechanism. "Our divers reported that they had never observed large-scale ice on the surface of this native scallop species," Meister says.

[...] The microscope reveals small ridges that run in a radiating pattern on their shell. These ridges ensure that water freezes preferentially there. If the freezing process continues, a continuous layer of ice forms, resting only on the ridges. Due to the low adhesion between ice and shell, the smallest underwater flow can therefore wash off the ice again and the scallop does not freeze.

Read more of this story at SoylentNews.