We have a major research interest in understanding, and deploying, ice binding protein mimetics. Whilst we have made huge progress with polymers which can slow the rate of ice growth, the question of how to make ice nucleate remains a challenge. Ice nucleating proteins form complex assemblies and isolated proteins are poor nucleators. To address this, we have synthesised dense bottlebrush polymers with poly(vinyl alcohol) side chains. These side chains are known to bind ice and when presented as very high molecular weight (100's of kg/mol) we show they can nucleate ice. This is the first report of a bottom-up designed polymeric nucleator which we can now use as a tool to probe ice nucleation.

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Poly(vinyl alcohol) molecular bottlebrushes nucleate iceLink opens in a new window