Relaxation dynamics of saturated and unsaturated oriented lipid bilayers.

We present experimental measurements and analysis of the dynamics and the phase behaviour of saturated DMPC and unsaturated DOPC oriented multi-lamellar bilayers. Elastic and inelastic neutron scattering were used to directly probe the dynamical processes of these membrane systems on time and length scales relevant to the internal and localized motion of lipid monomers. Mobility in this regime can be informative in elucidating the local interactions responsible for material properties of these fluid lipid systems.

Low-temperature dynamics of water confined in a hydrophobic mesoporous material.

Quasielastic neutron scattering was used to study the dynamics of three-dimensional confined water in a hydrophobic mesoporous material designated as CMK-1 in the temperature range from 250 to 170 K. We observe a crossover phenomenon at temperature T(L) . We find that T(L) of water confined in CMK-1 occurs in between previous observations of one-dimensional confined water in materials with different hydrophilicities.