The Glass Transition of Water, Based on Hyperquenching Experiments

Abstract

The glass transition temperature ( T g ) in water is still uncertain, with conflicting values reported in the literature. As with other hyperquenched glasses, water exhibits a large relaxation exotherm on reheating at the normal rate of 10 kelvin (K) per minute. This release of heat indicates the transformation of a high enthalpy state to a lower one found in slow-cooled glasses. When the exotherm temperature is scaled by T g , the good glass-formers show a common pattern. However, for hyperquenched water, when this analysis is performed using the commonly accepted T g = 136 K, its behavior appears completely different, but this should not be the case because enthalpy relaxation is fundamental to the calorimetric glass transition. With T g = 165 ± 5 K, normal behavior is restored in comparison with other hyperquenched glasses and with the binary solution behavior of network-former systems (H 2 O, ZnCl 2 , or BeF 2 plus a second component). This revised value has relevance to the understanding of water- biomolecule interactions.