Translational and rotational dynamics of water in mesoporous silica materials: MCM-41-S and MCM-48-S

Abstract

We investigated the translational and rotational dynamics of water molecules in mesoporous silica materials MCM-41-S and MCM-48-S using the incoherent quasielastic neutron scattering technique. The range of wave vector transfers Q covered in the measurements was from 0.27 to 1.93 Å−1 broad enough to detect both the translational and rotational contributions to the scattering. We used the relaxing-cage models for both translational and rotational motions which we developed earlier, to analyze the QENS spectra and investigated water dynamics in a supercooled range from 250 to 280 K. The results show a marked slowing down of both the translational and rotational relaxation times, and an increasing effect of confinement on the translational motion, as the temperature is lowered.