Dynamical properties of confined supercooled water: an NMR study

We report a set of dynamical data of confined water measured in a very deeply supercooled regime (290-190 K). Water is contained in silica matrices (MCM-41-S) which consist of 1D cylindrical pores with diameters d = 14,18 and 24 Å. When confined in these tubular pores, water does not crystallize, and can be supercooled well below 200 K. We use the NMR technique to obtain the characteristic proton relaxation time-constants (the spin-lattice relaxation time-constant T1 and the spin-spin relaxation time-constant T2) and a direct measurement of the self-diffusion coefficient in the whole temperature range. We give evidence of the existence of a fragile-to-strong dynamic crossover (FSC) at T_L = 225 K from the temperature dependence of the self-diffusion coefficient. A combination of the NMR self-diffusion coefficient with the average translational relaxation time, as measured by quasi-elastic neutron scattering, shows a well defined decoupling of transport coefficients, i.e. the breakdown of the Stokes-Einstein relation, on approaching the crossover temperature T_L.