Vitrification and Glass Transition of Water: Insights from Spin Probe ESR

TL;DR

This study uses spin probe ESR to address longstanding questions about water's vitrification, glass transition, and supercooled state, providing evidence that water can be vitrified and undergoes a glass transition around 135 K, with relaxation behavior aligning with the Adam-Gibbs model.

Contribution

It demonstrates that water can be vitrified by rapid quenching and identifies its glass transition temperature, offering new insights into water's phase behavior in 'no man's land.'

Findings

Water can be vitrified by rapid quenching.

Water undergoes a glass transition at approximately 135 K.

Relaxation behavior between 165 K and 233 K follows the Adam-Gibbs model.

Abstract

Three long standing problems related to the physics of water viz, the possibility of vitrifying bulk water by rapid quenching, its glass transition, and the supposed impossibility of obtaining supercooled water between 150 and 233 K, the so-called 'no man's land'of its phase diagram, are studied using the highly sensitive technique of spin probe ESR. Our results suggest that water can indeed be vitrified by rapid quenching, it undergoes a glass transition at \~ 135 K, and the relaxation behavior studied using this method between 165 K and 233 K closely follows the predictions of the Adam-Gibbs model.