The anti-frozen attribute of sugar solutions

Low-temperature Raman spectroscopy revealed that sugar solvation depresses the critical temperature for homogeneous ice nucleation ( T N ) whose depression extent follows the order of: trehalose   >   glucose   >   fructose at the same concentration and the extent of T N depression for a specific sugar is proportional to its concentration. We attribute the T N depression to the O:H vibration mode redshift induced by the solute dipolar polarization and distortion of the solvent hydrogen bond (O:H O or HB with “:” being the electron lone air of oxygen). The O:H phonon redshift lowers the Debye temperature of the O:H specific heat and disperses the quasisolid-phase boundary and the associated T N .