New insights into the fundamental behaviour of water

Research has confirmed that water's molecular dynamics change dramatically between about -35°C and -20°C when it becomes glassy

The findings have relevance for cryopreservation of biological materials, food freezing technologies, and understanding water in living cells, where it is often also confined at the nanoscale

The research team used neutron and synchrotron techniques at ANSTO to observes dynamic changes at the molecular scale

An international collaboration of researchers has used ANSTO's facilities to find something new about the properties one of the most fundamental everyday materials, water, and answered an important scientific question.

The findings published in Nature Communications have practical implications for understanding water at very low temperatures. The findings have relevance for cryopreservation of biological materials, food freezing technologies, and understanding water in living cells, where it is often also confined at the nanoscale. 

Water is one of the most familiar substances on Earth, yet it still presents many scientific mysteries. One of the biggest unanswered questions is finding where the transition from a liquid to glass occurs.  With many other materials this has been discovered by cooling them very quickly or  ‘quenching’ to freeze the atoms in place without any organised (crystalline) arrangement.  

Although we know glassy water exists on Earth within polar clouds, scientist have been unable to observe the liquid to glass transition, because water forms crystalline ice too rapidly.   

To approach this problem, rather than looking at bulk water, this team trapped tiny amounts of water within extremely thin layers of lipid-like membranes – made of the molecule phytantriol. 

A ‘soft nanoconfinement’ prevented water from crystallising into ice. The team found that water enters a previously hidden glassy state over a much wider temperature range than previously thought.