Slow dynamics of supercooled water confined in nanoporous silica materials

The incoherent quasielastic neutron scattering (QENS) studies of the dynamics of supercooled water confined in nanoporous silica materials were reviewed. QENS data were analyzed by using the relaxing cage model (RCM). The molecular dynamics (MD) simulation of the extended simple point charge model (SPC/E) for bulk supercooled water was used to establish the validity of the RCM, which applies to both the translational and rotational motion of water molecules. It was assumed that the dynamics of water molecules in the vicinity of a hydrophilic surface was similat to a bulk water at an equivalent lower supercooled temperature. The relaxational dynamics of water confined in mesoporous matrices were studied using dielectric spectroscopy.