The JG β-relaxation in water and impact on the dynamics of aqueous mixtures and hydrated biomolecules

Autor: M Bertoldo, G Ciampalini, K. L. Ngai, S. Ancherbak, M. Shahin Thayyil, Simone Capaccioli, Li-Min Wang
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2019
Předmět:
Zdroj: The Journal of chemical physics 151 (2019): 034504-1–034504-14. doi:10.1063/1.5100835
info:cnr-pdr/source/autori:Capaccioli S.; Ngai K.L.; Ancherbak S.; Bertoldo M.; Ciampalini G.; Thayyil M.S.; Wang L.-M./titolo:The JG alpha-relaxation in water and impact on the dynamics of aqueous mixtures and hydrated biomolecules/doi:10.1063%2F1.5100835/rivista:The Journal of chemical physics/anno:2019/pagina_da:034504-1/pagina_a:034504-14/intervallo_pagine:034504-1–034504-14/volume:151
DOI: 10.1063/1.5100835
Popis: Although by now the glass transition temperature of uncrystallized bulk water is generally accepted to manifest at temperature T near 136 K, not much known are the spectral dispersion of the structural alpha-relaxation and the temperature dependence of its relaxation time tau_alpha-bulk(T). Whether bulk water has the supposedly ubiquitous Johari-Goldstein (JG) beta-relaxation is a question that has not been answered. By studying the structural alpha-relaxation over a wide range of temperatures in several aqueous mixtures without crystallization and with glass transition temperatures T close to 136 K, we deduce the properties of the alpha-relaxation and the temperature dependence of tau_alpha(T) of bulk water. The frequency dispersion of the alpha-relaxation is narrow, indicating that it is weakly cooperative. A single Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann (VFT) temperature dependence can describe the data of tau_alpha(T) at low temperatures as well as at high temperatures from neutron scattering and GHz-THz dielectric relaxation, and hence, there is no fragile to strong transition. The T-scaled VFT temperature dependence of tau_alpha(T) has a small fragility index m less than 44, indicating that water is a "strong" glass-former. The existence of the JG beta-relaxation in bulk water is supported by its equivalent relaxation observed in water confined in spaces with lengths of nanometer scale and having Arrhenius T-dependence of its relaxation times tau_conf(T). The equivalence is justified by the drastic reduction of cooperativity of the alpha-relaxation in nanoconfinement and rendering it to become the JG beta-relaxation. Thus, the tau_conf(T) from experiments can be taken as tauJG_bulk(T), the JG beta-relaxation time of bulk water. The ratio tau_alphaBulk(Tg)/tau_betaBulk(Tg) is smaller than most glass-formers, and it corresponds to the Kohlrausch alpha-correlation function, exp[-(t/tau_alphaBulk)^(1-n)], having (1-n) = 0.90. The dielectric data of many aqueous mixtures and hydrated biomolecules with T higher than that of water show the presence of a secondary nu-relaxation from the water component. The nu-relaxation is strongly connected to the alpha-relaxation in properties, and hence, it belongs to the special class of secondary relaxations in glass-forming systems. Typically, its relaxation time tau_nu(T) is longer than tau_betaBulk(T), but tau_nu(T) becomes about the same as tau_betaBulk(T) at sufficiently high water content. However, tau_nu(T) does not become shorter than tau_betaBulk(T). Thus, tau_betaBulk(T) is the lower bound of tau_nu(T) for all aqueous mixtures and hydrated biomolecules. Moreover, it is tau_betaBulk(T) but not tau_alpha(T) that is responsible for the dynamic transition of hydrated globular proteins.
Databáze: OpenAIRE