*Article* **Patterning Configuration of Surface Hydrophilicity by Graphene Nanosheet towards the Inhibition of Ice Nucleation and Growth**

**Biao Jiang 1, Yizhou Shen 1,\*, Jie Tao 1,\*, Yangjiangshan Xu 1, Haifeng Chen 2, Senyun Liu 3, Weilan Liu <sup>4</sup> and Xinyu Xie <sup>1</sup>**


**Abstract:** Freezing of liquid water occurs in many natural phenomena and affects countless human activities. The freezing process mainly involves ice nucleation and continuous growth, which are determined by the energy and structure fluctuation in supercooled water. Herein, considering the surface hydrophilicity and crystal structure differences between metal and graphene, we proposed a kind of surface configuration design, which was realized by graphene nanosheets being alternately anchored on a metal substrate. Ice nucleation and growth were investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. The surface configuration could induce ice nucleation to occur preferentially on the metal substrate where the surface hydrophilicity was higher than the lateral graphene nanosheet. However, ice nucleation could be delayed to a certain extent under the hindering effect of the interfacial water layer formed by the high surface hydrophilicity of the metal substrate. Furthermore, the graphene nanosheets restricted lateral expansion of the ice nucleus at the clearance, leading to the formation of a curved surface of the ice nucleus as it grew. As a result, ice growth was suppressed effectively due to the Gibbs–Thomson effect, and the growth rate decreased by 71.08% compared to the pure metal surface. Meanwhile, boundary misorientation between ice crystals was an important issue, which also prejudiced the growth of the ice crystal. The present results reveal the microscopic details of ice nucleation and growth inhibition of the special surface configuration and provide guidelines for the rational design of an anti-icing surface.

**Keywords:** surface hydrophilicity; graphene; ice formation; clearance; molecular dynamic simulation
