Mechanism of lamellar spacing adjustment in directionally frozen agar gels

Abstract

A theory is presented for predicting the size of ice crystals which result from steady-state, unidirectional growth within aqueous agar gels. Cellular arrays of adjacent ice crystals were separated by an amorphous water-agar membrane at a composition near the vitrification point. Using this vitrification composition and both a steady-state condition and a minimum free energy criterion, the size of ice crystals was predicted for a given solidification velocity and diffusion condition. It was found, however, that this simple model could not predict the trend towards larger crystal sizes that was observed when the initial agar concentration in the gels increased from 3% to 10% by weight agar. © 1985 Steinkopff.