IOP Publishing, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 50(20), p. 502101, 2008
DOI: 10.1088/0953-8984/20/50/502101
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High resolution quasi-elastic neutron scattering is used to investigate the slow dynamics of hydration water confined in calcium silicate hydrate gel in an aged cement paste at supercooled temperatures. A super-Arrhenius to Arrhenius dynamic crossover of the average translational relaxation time 〈 τ 〉 as a function of the inverse temperature is observed at TL = 231 ± 5 K, which coincides with a prominent peak in the differential scanning calorimetry cooling scan. The dynamic susceptibility chiT(t) calculated using the experimentally determined temperature dependence of the self-intermediate scattering function shows direct evidence of the enhanced dynamic fluctuations and the associated growth in size of the dynamic heterogeneity in the confined water on approaching TL.