Effect of antifreeze proteins on the nucleation, growth, and the memory effect during tetrahydrofuran clathrate hydrate formation

The inhibition activities of two antifreeze proteins (AFPs) on the formation of tetrahydrofuran (THF) clathrate hydrate have been tested. AFPs from fish (wfAFP) and insect (CfAFP) changed the morphology of growing THF hydrate crystals. Also, both AFPs showed higher activities in inhibiting the formation THF hydrate than a commercial kinetic inhibitor, poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP). Strikingly, both AFPs also showed the ability to eliminate the "memory effect" in which the crystallization of hydrate occurs more quickly after the initial formation. This is the first report of molecules that can inhibit the memory effect. Since the homogeneous nucleation temperature for THF hydrate was measured to be 237 K, close to that observed for ice itself, the action of kinetic inhibitors must involve heterogeneous nucleation. On the basis of our results, we postulate a mechanism for heterogeneous nucleation, the memory effect and its elimination by antifreeze proteins.