Thermal hysteresis is often taken as the primary manifestation of antifreeze activity of biological non-equilibrium antifreezes, such as antifreeze proteins and antifreeze glycoproteins. Here we report evidence of the thermal hysteresis caused by poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). Similar to biological non-equilibrium antifreezes, PVA molecules stopped the growth of ice in the melt at temperatures even below the melting temperature of ice, although PVA exhibited very slight thermal hysteresis compared with most known biological antifreezes. The crystal habit of ice in the melt in the presence of PVA indicated that PVA molecules affected specific planes of the ice crystal. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.