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Using a combination of dielectric spectroscopy and solid-state deuteron NMR, the hydration water dynamics of connective tissue proteins is studied at sub-ambient temperatures. In this range, the water dynamics follows an Arrhenius law. A scaling analysis of dielectric losses, 'two-phase' NMR spectra, and spin-lattice relaxation times consistently yield evidence for a Gaussian distribution of energy barriers. With the dielectric data as input, random-walk simulations of a large-angle, water reorientation provide an approximate description of stimulated-echo data on hydrated elastin. This secondary process is quasi-isotropic and delocalized. The delocalization is inferred from previous NMR diffusometry experiments. It is emphasized that the phenomenology of this process is shared by many non-aqueous binary glasses in which the constituent components exhibit a sufficient dynamical contrast.

We combine (2)H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), broadband dielectric spectroscopy (BDS), and triplet solvation dynamics (TSD) to investigate molecular dynamics in glass-forming mixtures of water and propylene glycol in very broad time and temperature ranges. All methods yield consistent results for the α process of the studied mixtures, which hardly depends on the composition and shows Vogel-Fulcher temperature dependence as well as Cole-Davidson spectral shape. The good agreement between BDS and TDS data reveals that preferential solvation of dye molecules in microheterogeneous mixtures does not play an important role. Below the glass transition temperature T(g), NMR and BDS studies reveal that the β process of the mixtures shows correlation times, which depend on the water concentration, but exhibit a common temperature dependence, obeying an Arrhenius law with an activation energy of E(a) = 0.54 eV, as previously reported for mixtures of water with various molecular species. Detailed comparison of NMR and BDS correlation functions for the β process unravels that the former decay faster and more stretched than the latter. Moreover, the present NMR data imply that propylene glycol participates in the β process and, hence, it is not a pure water process, and that the mechanism for molecular dynamics underlying the β process differs in mixtures of water with small and large molecules.

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Static field gradient and pulsed field gradient NMR are used to study the temperature dependence of water diffusion in myoglobin and lysozyme matrices for low hydration levels of about 0.3 g/g. We show that in order to determine reliable self-diffusion coefficients D in a broad temperature range, it is very important to consider an exchange of magnetization between water and protein protons, often denoted as cross relaxation. Specifically, upon cooling, the observed stimulated-echo decays, which reflect water diffusion near ambient temperature, become more and more governed by cross relaxation. We demonstrate that comparison of experimental results for inhomogeneous and homogeneous magnetic fields enables successful separation of diffusion and relaxation contributions to the stimulated-echo decays. Making use of this possibility, we find that in the temperature range 230-300 K, the temperature-dependent diffusivities D exhibit a Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann behavior, where water diffusion in the studied protein matrices is substantially slower than in the bulk. By comparing present and previous data, we discuss relations between translational and rotational motions and between short-range and long-range water dynamics in protein matrices. In addition, we critically examine the significance of results from previous applications of NMR diffusometry to the temperature-dependent water diffusion in protein matrices.