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Updated: May 27, 2026

Study of Protein Dynamics via Neutron Spin Echo Spectroscopy
Published on: April 13, 2022
The non-Gaussian dynamics of glycerol
R Busselez1, R Lefort, A Ghoufi
1Institute of Physics of Rennes, CNRS-University of Rennes 1, UMR 6251, F-35042 Rennes, France.
Abstract:
We have combined incoherent quasielastic neutron scattering experiments and atomistic molecular simulations to investigate the microscopic dynamics of glycerol moving away from the hydrodynamic limit. We relate changes in the momentum transfer (Q) dependence of the relaxation time to distinct changes of the single-particle dynamics. Going from small to large values of Q, a first crossover at about 0.5 Å(-1) is related to the coupling of the translational diffusion dynamics to the non-Debye structural relaxation, while the second crossover at a Q-value near the main diffraction peak is associated with the Gaussian to non-Gaussian crossover of the short-time molecular dynamics, related to the decaging processes. We offer an unprecedented extension of previous studies on polymeric systems towards the case of the typical low-molecular-weight glass-forming system glycerol.
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