Fast scanning calorimetry studies of the glass transition in doped amorphous solid water: evidence for the existence of a unique vicinal phase.

The fast scanning calorimetry (FSC) was employed to investigate glass transition phenomena in vapor deposited amorphous solid water (ASW) films doped with acetic acid, pentanol, and carbon tetrachloride. In all three cases, FSC thermograms of doped ASW films show well pronounced glass transitions at temperatures near 180 K. Systematic FSC studies of the glass transition temperature and the excess heat capacity dependence on the concentration of impurities indicate the possible existence of two distinct non-crystalline phases of H2O in binary aqueous solutions. According to our conjecture, bulk pure ASW is a glass at temperatures up to its crystallization near 205 K. However, guest molecules in the ASW matrix may be enveloped in an H2O phase which undergoes a glass transition prior to crystallization. In the case of CH3COOH, we estimate that such a viscous liquid shell contains approximately 25 H2O molecules. We discuss the implications of these findings for past studies of molecular kinetics in pure vitreous water and in binary aqueous solutions.