Abstract
We show that the viscosity-related main () relaxation of confined water vanishes at a temperature where the volume required for the cooperative relaxation becomes larger than the size of the geometrically confined water cluster. This occurs typically around 200 K, implying that above this temperature we observe a merged relaxation, whereas below it only a local () relaxation remains. This also means that such confined supercooled water does not exhibit any true glass transition, in contrast to other liquids in similar confinements. Furthermore, it implies that deeply supercooled water in biological systems, such as membranes and proteins, generally shows only a local relaxation, a finding of importance for low temperature properties of biological materials.
- Received 4 April 2006
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.247802
©2006 American Physical Society