Water structures in cryoprotectant solutions studied by Delayed Luminescence

Cryoprotectant acts to stabilize molecules, cells and tissues under cooling to subzero temperatures. We made use of glycerol that, when mixed with water, lowers the freezing temperature of the solution non-monotonically with glycerol concentration. Central to this problem is the action of glycerol on water structure. Accordingly to previous studies performed on salt and gel water solution, we used the ultra-weak Delayed Luminescence to examine the structure of water in glycerol−water liquid mixtures, at different concentrations and temperatures. DL features were studied and compared with data from neutron diffraction experiments and molecular dynamics simulations as reported in Literature.