The dynamics of water in nanoporous silica studied by dielectric spectroscopy.

Broad-band dielectric spectroscopy is used to investigate the dynamics of hydration water on the surface of the cylindrical pores of a nanostructured silica material (MCM-41, with pore diameter of 3.2 nm) at various hydrations, in the temperature range 250-150 K. We focus our attention on orientational relaxations that shift from 0.5 MHz at 250 K to less than 1 Hz at 150 K. The measurements distinguish the relaxation of the hydroxyl groups at the surface of silica from the orientational dynamics of hydration water which strongly depends on the degree of hydration. Although it is significantly faster than the dynamics of water in ice, the orientational relaxation of "non-freezing" water has an activation energy comparable to that in ice when the hydration layer is complete and approximately two-molecule thick.

Biomimetic approach to the oxygen evolving center: resonance Raman investigation of a manganese mu-oxo dimer in three oxidation states.

A biologically relevant dinuclear manganese mono-mu-oxo complex with a bound phenolate ligand in three oxidation states, (III,III), (III,IV) and (IV,IV), was studied using resonance Raman spectroscopy. Depending upon the excitation frequency, phenolate vibrations or mu-oxo vibrations were enhanced, which allowed us to assign the UV-visible absorption spectra. In the case of the mixed valence species (III,IV), the mu-oxo vibration at 854 cm-1 has been assigned by isotopic substitution (H2(18)O) to nu as(Mn-O-Mn). This preferential enhancement of the asymmetric vibration stresses the asymmetric character of the bridge.