Abstract
We are considering water adsorbed as a monolayer onVycor, a porous silica glass. The interfacial water molecules interact with the substrate through hydrogen bonding with the numerous silanol (Si-OH) groups present all over the surface. This special form of water exhibits peculiar dynamical properties. A combined calorimetric, diffraction, high resolution quasi-elastic and inelastic neutron scattering study shows thatinterfacial water experiences a glass transition at 165 K and a liquid-liquid transition at 240 K from a low-density to a high density-liquid. We show that this unusual behaviour, compared to the bulk, is due to a strong weakening of the hydrogen-bond strength, possibly due to the reduced number of hydrogen-bonds engaged by water molecules when they are in an interfacial two dimensional situation. The connections of these findings to the physics of bulk water and protein dynamics are discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 227-233 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | European Physical Journal: Special Topics |
| Volume | 141 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 2007 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
JMZ and MCBF are grateful to LLB (CEA-CNRS), IPNS and ILL for neutron beam time access and would like to thank Dr. M. Johnson (ILL) for discussions and assistance during the IN16 experiment. The IPNS experiments were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences-Materials Sciences, under Contract No. W-31-109-ENG-38.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Basic Energy Sciences-Materials Sciences | |
| U.S. Department of Energy |