Chemical Physics Letters, Vol.647, 170-174, 2016
Confinement-induced vitrification of aqueous sodium chloride solutions
Bulk aqueous solution of NaCl is a poor glass former, it vitrifies only under high pressure. Here we report the investigation of glass transition of NaCl solutions confined in nanopores. By inspecting the dependence of glass transition temperature and heat flow jump at transition it is concluded that vitrification of confined NaCl solutions involves only the eutectic phase and the precipitated ice core may help furnish the demanded confinement strength. Ion-water interaction still plays a dominant role in determining vitrification of solutions even under nano-confinement, as under exactly the same confinement conditions vitrification of aqueous KCl solutions was not detected. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.