Pressure effect on water dynamics in tert-butyl alcohol/water solutions

We report here a quasi-elastic neutron scattering (QENS) investigation of the effect of pressure on the diffusivity properties of water in a dilute aqueous solution of hydrophobic molecules (tert-butyl alcohol, TBA). The experiment was performed at fixed TBA concentration (0.02 molar fraction) by varying pressure from 1 to 2000 bar at two different temperatures (268 and 278 K). The quasi-elastic line-shapes have been analysed in terms of a model based on the memory function formalism. Our data indicate that, on increasing pressure up to 2000 bar, the diffusion coefficient of water in the TBA/water mixture exhibits a relative increase larger than that of pure water under the same thermodynamic conditions. The extent of this effect increases with decreasing temperature. The observed behaviour is described in terms of pressure-induced distortions of the H-bonded random network of liquid water.