Ice-nucleating proteins (INPs) are, the most effective ice-nucleating agent, and play a significant role in avoiding freeze injuries in freeze-tolerant organisms. INPs promote ice nucleation in the extracellular space and harvest water from the cells due to the low vapor pressure of ice compared with that of water, thus protecting freeze-tolerant organisms from intracellular freezing. The antifreeze mechanism of INPs offers a unique opportunity to inhibit large-scale freezing by localized controlling of ice formation, with valuable enlightenment in antiicing material sciences. Learning from nature, we transfer the excellent ice nucleation-facilitating capability of INPs together with antifreeze concept of spatially-controlled ice nucleation to anti-icing material design, fabricating icephobic coatings that consist of patterned hydrogel-encapsulated INP (PHINP). The ice patterns are templated by patterned PHINPs via tuning ice nucleation and the ice coverage fraction can be controlled lower than 30 % on
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