RESUMO
High resolution inelastic neutron scattering has been used to characterize the low temperature rotational dynamics of methane ( CH4) films on MgO(100) surfaces as a function of layer thickness. At low temperatures the films grow layer-by-layer similar to the (100) planes of bulk solid CH4. We observe a crossover in the CH4 tunneling spectrum from one characteristic of the 2D solid at monolayer coverages into one that is bulklike (i.e., 3D) when the film is six layers thick. These findings place significant constraints on the microscopic models used to describe CH4-CH4 and CH4-MgO interactions.
RESUMO
Using a microeV neutron spectrometer we have studied the mobility of water in gels formed by two polysaccharides: agarose and hyaluronic acid. Agarose is a nearly uncharged polysaccharide; its gels are fairly stiff, quasi-random networks of fibre bundles. Hyaluronic acid is a highly charged polysaccharide capable of retaining large amounts of water in entangled meshworks with unusual rheological properties. We have analysed sets of quasi-elastic lineshapes broadened by two proton populations with different degrees of freedom. The resulting microscopic mobility parameters and their temperature dependence reveal a complex behaviour. The overall effect of the biopolymer network is to increase translational as well as rotational relaxation times, but the changes observed are not dramatic and cannot fully account for the strikingly different macroscopic properties of these gels. Local electrostatic interactions (over 3 to 20 A) do not appear to influence significantly the rheological behaviour.