Understanding ice nucleation and growth is of great interest
to
researchers due to its importance in the biological, cryopreservation,
and environmental fields. However, microstructural investigations
of ice on the molecular scale are still lacking. In this paper, a
simple method is proposed to prepare quasi-2-dimensional ice Ih films, which have been characterized via cryogenic transmission
electron microscope. The intersecting stacking faults of basal (BSF)
and prismatic (PSF) types have been directly visualized and resolved
with a notable first-time report of PSF in ice Ih. Moreover,
the possible growth pathways of BSF, namely, the Ic phase,
were elucidated by the theoretical calculations and the chair conformation
of H2O molecules. This study offers valuable insights that
can enhance researchers’ understanding of the growth kinetics
of crystalline ice.