Water Turns Glassy Under Lipid Nanoconfinement
Scientists trapped ultra-thin water between lipid layers made from phytantriol and cooled the sample to suppress crystallization, revealing a liquid-to-glass transition over a wider temperature range than expected (-63 to -20°C dynamic changes; -74 to -64°C static transition). Using SAXS/WAXS at a Australian synchrotron and neutron spectroscopy at ANSTO, they mapped water’s slowed dynamics across six orders of magnitude in time, suggesting practical relevance for cryopreservation and deep-freezing in food, with findings published in Nature Communications (2026).
