Study of the relaxational and vibrational dynamics of bioprotectant glass-forming mixtures by neutron scattering and molecular dynamics simulation

In this work inelastic neutron scattering (INS) and quasielastic neutron scattering (QENS) data, collected at different temperature values by the OSIRIS and IRIS spectrometers at the ISIS Facility (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Oxford, UK) on mixtures of two glass-forming bioprotectant systems, i.e., trehalose and glycerol, as a function of concentration are presented. The data analyses show that the fast local dynamics, measured by INS, as well as the diffusive dynamics, measured by QENS, exhibit in the investigated mixtures a switching-off maximum in the same concentration range corresponding to a very low glycerol content. This effect can be accounted for by a not-ideal mixing process of the pure constituents due to an increased hydrogen bonding network strength. The experimental studies are completed by molecular dynamics simulation findings.