Status of experiments probing the dynamics of water in confinement

In many relevant situations, water is not in its bulk form but is instead attached to some substrates or filling some cavities. We shall call water in the latter environment confined or interfacial water as opposed to bulk water. This confined water is essential for the stability and function of biological macromolecules. In this review paper, we present the more recent up to date account of the dynamics of confined water as compared with that of bulk water. Various techniques are used to study the dynamics of confined water. Among them, quasi-elastic and inelastic neutron scattering is a powerful tool to study translational and rotational diffusion as well as vibrational density of states of confined water. Various examples involving water confined in porous media, adsorbed on surface of ionic crystals, in the presence of organic solutes and at the surface of biological molecules are presented. The combined effects of the hydration level and the temperature on the retardation of the water molecules motions are discussed on the basis of phenomenological models as well as of power law fits based on the Mode Coupling Theory.Received: 1 January 2003, Published online: 8 October 2003PACS: 61.12.Ex Neutron scattering (including small-angle scattering) - 66.30.Pa Transport properties of condensed matter (nonelectronic): Diffusion in nanoscale solids