Metal–catechol complexes mediate ice nucleation

Abstract

The capability of mediating ice nucleation is pertinent to a broad range of fields. Herein, inspired by metal–catechol coordination found in adhesive proteins in which catechol moieties can construct strong complexes with a diverse array of metal ions, we develop a platform for mediating ice nucleation based on metal–catechol complexes and demonstrate that ice nucleation can be successively mediated by varying the characteristics and valence of the metal in metal–catechol complexes.