Microscopic mechanism of water diffusion in glucose glasses

Recent advances in carbohydrate phase behavior and rheology

The past decades have seen major advances in the understanding of the role of phase and state transitions of food carbohydrates on the behavior during processing and on product characteristics. Specifically, the awareness of the importance of the glass transition temperature and the plasticization by water and its study for a variety of food system is having major impact on the formulation and processing of foods, and in defining shelf-life conditions. This has led to the use of phase and state diagrams in the analysis and prediction of the behavior of food systems during processing and storage. This review first summarizes the current understanding of the food carbohydrate phase behavior and rheology, with emphasis on the concentrated states close to the glass transition and in the glassy state. Several pertinent topics, including the modeling of the rheological properties close to the glass transition, the strongly non-linear diffusion of water in the rubbery and glassy states, the aging and antiplasticization of glassy carbohydrate matrices, and consequences of amorphous-amorphous phase separation for the behavior of carbohydrate blends in concentrated states are discussed. Applications in food processing and product development are discussed, including the spray drying and freeze drying, powder agglomeration of food powders, powder caking, encapsulation, baked goods, crystallization and extrusion.

Water Diffusion Proceeds via a Hydrogen-Bond Jump Exchange Mechanism

The self-diffusion of water molecules plays a key part in a broad range of essential processes in biochemistry, medical imaging, material science, and engineering. However, its molecular mechanism and the role played by the water hydrogen-bond network rearrangements are not known. Here we combine molecular dynamics simulations and analytic modeling to determine the molecular mechanism of water diffusion. We establish a quantitative connection between the water diffusion coefficient and hydrogen-bond jump exchanges, and identify the features that determine the underlying energetic barrier. We thus provide a unified framework to understand the coupling between translational, rotational, and hydrogen-bond dynamics in liquid water. It explains why these different dynamics do not necessarily exhibit identical temperature dependences although they all result from the same hydrogen-bond exchange events. The consequences for the understanding of water diffusion in supercooled conditions and for water transport in complex aqueous systems, including ionic, biological, and confined solutions, are discussed.

Impact of Low Concentration of Strongly Hydrogen-Bonded Water Molecules on the Dynamics of Amorphous Terfenadine: Insights from Molecular Dynamics Simulations and Dielectric Relaxation Spectroscopy

The impact of low water concentration of strongly hydrogen-bonded water molecules on the dynamical properties of amorphous terfenadine (TFD) is investigated through complementary molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and dielectric relaxation spectroscopy (DRS) experiments. In this article, we especially highlight the important role played by some residual water molecules in the concentration of 1-2% (w/w) trapped in the TFD glassy matrix, which are particularly difficult to remove experimentally without a specific heating/drying process. From MD computations and analyses of the hydrogen bonding (HB) interactions, different categories of water molecules are revealed and particularly the presence of strongly HB water molecules. These latter localize themselves in small pockets in empty spaces existing in between the TFD molecules due to the poor packing of the glassy state and preferentially interact with the polar groups close to the flexible central part of the TFD molecules. We present a simple model which rationalizes at the molecular scale the effect of these strongly HB water molecules on dynamics and how they give rise to a supplementary relaxation process (namely process S) which is detected for the first time in the glassy state of TFD annealed at room temperature while this process is completely absent in a non-annealed glass. It also explains how this supplementary relaxation is coupled with the intramolecular motion (namely process γ) of the very flexible central part of the TFD molecule. The present findings help to understand more generally the microscopic origin of the secondary relaxations often detected by DRS in the glassy states of molecular compounds for which the exact nature is still debated.

A Review of Cellulose Coarse-Grained Models and Their Applications

Cellulose is the most common biopolymer and widely used in our daily life. Due to its unique properties and biodegradability, it has been attracting increased attention in the recent years and various new applications of cellulose and its derivatives are constantly being found. The development of new materials with improved properties, however, is not always an easy task, and theoretical models and computer simulations can often help in this process. In this review, we give an overview of different coarse-grained models of cellulose and their applications to various systems. Various coarse-grained models with different mapping schemes are presented, which can efficiently simulate systems from the single cellulose fibril/crystal to the assembly of many fibrils/crystals. We also discuss relevant applications of these models with a focus on the mechanical properties, self-assembly, chiral nematic phases, conversion between cellulose allomorphs, composite materials and interactions with other molecules.

Transient cavity dynamics and divergence from the Stokes-Einstein equation in organic aerosol

The diffusion of small molecules through viscous matrices formed by large organic molecules is important across a range of domains, including pharmaceutical science, materials chemistry, and atmospheric science, impacting on, for example, the formation of amorphous and crystalline phases. Here we report significant breakdowns in the Stokes-Einstein (SE) equation from measurements of the diffusion of water (spanning 5 decades) and viscosity (spanning 12 decades) in saccharide aerosol droplets. Molecular dynamics simulations show water diffusion is not continuous, but proceeds by discrete hops between transient cavities that arise and dissipate as a result of dynamical fluctuations within the saccharide lattice. The ratio of transient cavity volume to solvent volume increases with size of molecules making up the lattice, increasing divergence from SE predictions. This improved mechanistic understanding of diffusion in viscous matrices explains, for example, why organic compounds equilibrate according to SE predictions and water equilibrates more rapidly in aerosols.

Water diffusion measurements of single charged aerosols using H2O/D2O isotope exchange and Raman spectroscopy in an electrodynamic balance

We report water diffusion measurements on single charged aerosols using isotope exchange in an electrodynamic balance.

Comparative Study of the Collective Dynamics of Proteins and Inorganic Nanoparticles

Molecular dynamics simulations of ubiquitin in water/glycerol solutions are used to test the suggestion by Karplus and coworkers that proteins in their biologically active state should exhibit a dynamics similar to 'surface-melted' inorganic nanoparticles (NPs). Motivated by recent studies indicating that surface-melted inorganic NPs are in a 'glassy' state that is an intermediate dynamical state between a solid and liquid, we probe the validity and significance of this proposed analogy. In particular, atomistic simulations of ubiquitin in solution based on CHARMM36 force field and pre-melted Ni NPs (Voter-Chen Embedded Atom Method potential) indicate a common dynamic heterogeneity, along with other features of glass-forming (GF) liquids such as collective atomic motion in the form of string-like atomic displacements, potential energy fluctuations and particle displacements with long range correlations ('colored' or 'pink' noise), and particle displacement events having a power law scaling in magnitude, as found in earthquakes. On the other hand, we find the dynamics of ubiquitin to be even more like a polycrystalline material in which the α-helix and β-sheet regions of the protein are similar to crystal grains so that the string-like collective atomic motion is concentrated in regions between the α-helix and β-sheet domains.

Sucrose diffusion in aqueous solution

The diffusion of sugar in aqueous solution is important both in nature and in technological applications, yet measurements of diffusion coefficients at low water content are scarce. We report directly measured sucrose diffusion coefficients in aqueous solution. Our technique utilises a Raman isotope tracer method to monitor the diffusion of non-deuterated and deuterated sucrose across a boundary between the two aqueous solutions. At a water activity of 0.4 (equivalent to 90 wt% sucrose) at room temperature, the diffusion coefficient of sucrose was determined to be approximately four orders of magnitude smaller than that of water in the same material. Using literature viscosity data, we show that, although inappropriate for the prediction of water diffusion, the Stokes-Einstein equation works well for predicting sucrose diffusion under the conditions studied. As well as providing information of importance to the fundamental understanding of diffusion in binary solutions, these data have technological, pharmaceutical and medical implications, for example in cryopreservation. Moreover, in the atmosphere, slow organic diffusion may have important implications for aerosol growth, chemistry and evaporation, where processes may be limited by the inability of a molecule to diffuse between the bulk and the surface of a particle.

Molecular Relaxations in Supercooled Liquid and Glassy States of Amorphous Quinidine: Dielectric Spectroscopy and Density Functional Theory Approaches

In this article, we conduct a comprehensive molecular relaxation study of amorphous Quinidine above and below the glass-transition temperature (Tg) through broadband dielectric relaxation spectroscopy (BDS) experiments and theoretical density functional theory (DFT) calculations, as one major issue with the amorphous state of pharmaceuticals is life expectancy. These techniques enabled us to determine what kind of molecular motions are responsible, or not, for the devitrification of Quinidine. Parameters describing the complex molecular dynamics of amorphous Quinidine, such as Tg, the width of the α relaxation (βKWW), the temperature dependence of α-relaxation times (τα), the fragility index (m), and the apparent activation energy of secondary γ relaxation (Ea-γ), were characterized. Above Tg (> 60 °C), a medium degree of nonexponentiality (βKWW = 0.5) was evidenced. An intermediate value of the fragility index (m = 86) enabled us to consider Quinidine as a glass former of medium fragility. Below Tg (< 60 °C), one well-defined secondary γ relaxation, with an apparent activation energy of Ea-γ = 53.8 kJ/mol, was reported. From theoretical DFT calculations, we identified the most reactive part of Quinidine moieties through exploration of the potential energy surface. We evidenced that the clearly visible γ process has an intramolecular origin coming from the rotation of the CH(OH)C9H14N end group. An excess wing observed in amorphous Quinidine was found to be an unresolved Johari-Goldstein relaxation. These studies were supplemented by sub-Tg experimental evaluations of the life expectancy of amorphous Quinidine by X-ray powder diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry. We show that the difference between Tg and the onset temperature for crystallization, Tc, which is 30 K, is sufficiently large to avoid recrystallization of amorphous Quinidine during 16 months of storage under ambient conditions.

Structural and thermodynamic aspects of plasticization and antiplasticization in glassy encapsulation and biostabilization matrices

The structural and thermodynamic properties of glassy carbohydrate matrices for the encapsulation and biostabilization of sensitive bioactive compounds, such as pharmaceutically active proteins and oxidation-sensitive compounds, are reviewed in the context of the plasticization and antiplasticization of glassy carbohydrates of intermediate and high molecular weight by low molecular weight diluents. Plasticization and antiplasticization may be monitored either by dynamic measures or by structural and thermodynamic features of the glassy matrices. Specifically, it is demonstrated that the decrease in size of the molecular free volume holes with increasing diluent content, as determined by positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS), is related to the antiplasticization of glassy carbohydrate matrices, resulting in increased barrier properties of the glassy matrix. As far as could be ascertained from the available data, the regimes as identified by PALS map on those detected by neutron scattering and dielectric spectroscopy for glassy matrices consisting of trehalose and the diluent glycerol. The review is concluded by a survey of the published results on the stability of bioactive compounds encapsulated in carbohydrate glasses and an overview of outstanding questions.

Stabilization of proteins in solid form

Immunogenicity of aggregated or otherwise degraded protein delivered from depots or other biopharmaceutical products is an increasing concern, and the ability to deliver stable, active protein is of central importance. We review characterization approaches for solid protein dosage forms with respect to metrics that are intended to be predictive of protein stability against aggregation and other degradation processes. Each of these approaches is ultimately motivated by hypothetical connections between protein stability and the material property being measured. We critically evaluate correlations between these properties and stability outcomes, and use these evaluations to revise the currently standing hypotheses. Based on this we provide simple physical principles that are necessary (and possibly sufficient) for generating solid delivery vehicles with stable protein loads. Essentially, proteins should be strongly coupled (typically through H-bonds) to the bulk regions of a phase-homogeneous matrix with suppressed β relaxation. We also provide a framework for reliable characterization of solid protein forms with respect to stability.

Evidence of pressure induced intermolecular proton transfer via mutarotation: the case of supercooled d-fructose

This paper describes a systematic investigation on the role of pressure in mutarotation kinetics of supercooled d-fructose using dielectric spectroscopy. The structural relaxation time acts as a suitable dynamical observable to monitor the mutarotation process that enables the construction of the kinetic curves. The reaction kinetic shapes have been analyzed using the Avrami model. At low temperature, sigmoidal kinetic curves are noted, which correspond to the high concentration of furanosidic forms. The magnitude of activation energy of the process significantly decreases with increasing pressure and is comparable to the solvated systems at 100 MPa. A potential connection between cooperative motion and the origin of intermolecular proton transfer via mutarotation at elevated pressure is also discussed. These experimental observations have fundamental significance on theoretical explanation of the mechanism involving mutarotation in sugars.

Solution Properties of Hemicellulose Polysaccharides with Four Common Carbohydrate Force Fields

Hemicellulose polysaccharides play an important role in the swelling behavior of the primary plant cell wall, and molecular dynamics simulations provide the means of gaining a concise understanding of the interactions of hemicellulose polysaccharides with water. Here, we compare four of the main polysaccharide force fields (CHARMM36 TIP3P, GROMOS56A6(CARBO) SPC, GLYCAM06h TIP3P, and GLYCAM06h TIP5P) for the most abundant hemicellulose backbone components. In particular, we compare aggregation, diffusion coefficients, system density, and investigate the free energy of hydration of saccharides in water. We find that the saccharides show nonphysical aggregation at low concentrations with the GLYCAM06h TIP3P force field, which can be rectified by the use of the TIP5P water model. As a result of the aggregation, GLYCAM06h TIP3P does not lead to reasonable diffusion coefficients whereas the diffusion coefficients, as well as the system density, agrees best with experimental data for the GLYCAM06h TIP5P force field. Overall, GLYCAM06h TIP5P gives good agreement with experimental free energy of hydration data for small saccharides. In addition, the free energy of hydration for short polysaccharides calculated with the GLYCAM06h TIP5P force field is consistent with the radial distribution functions between the polysaccharides and water, the hydration number of the polysaccharides, and the hydrogen bonds formed in the system.

Using the fluorescence red edge effect to assess the long-term stability of lyophilized protein formulations

Nanosecond relaxation processes in sugar matrices are causally linked through diffusional processes to protein stability in lyophilized formulations. Long-term protein degradation rates track mean-squared displacement (⟨u(2)⟩) of hydrogen atoms in sugar glasses, a parameter describing dynamics on a time scale of picoseconds to nanoseconds. However, measurements of ⟨u(2)⟩ are usually performed by neutron scattering, which is not conducive to rapid formulation screening in early development. Here, we present a benchtop technique to derive a ⟨u(2)⟩ surrogate based on the fluorescence red edge effect. Glycerol, lyophilized trehalose, and lyophilized sucrose were used as model systems. Samples containing 10(-6) mole fraction of rhodamine 6G, a fluorophore, were excited at either 532 nm (main peak) or 566 nm (red edge), and the ⟨u(2)⟩ surrogate was determined based the corresponding Stokes shifts. Results showed reasonable agreement between ⟨u(2)⟩ from neutron scattering and the surrogate from fluorescence, although deviations were observed at very low temperatures. We discuss the sources of the deviations and suggest technique improvements to ameliorate these. We expect that this method will be a valuable tool to evaluate lyophilized sugar matrices with respect to their ability to protect proteins from diffusion-limited degradation processes during long-term storage. Additionally, the method may have broader applications in amorphous pharmaceutical solids.

Glucose-Promoted Localization Dynamics of Excess Electrons in Aqueous Glucose Solution Revealed by Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations reveal that an excess electron (EE) can be more efficiently localized as a cavity-shaped state in aqueous glucose solution (AGS) than in water. Compared with that (∼1.5 ps) in water, the localization time is shortened by ∼0.7-1.2 ps in three AGSs (0.56, 1.12, and 2.87 M). Although the radii of gyration of the solvated EEs are all close to 2.6 Å in the four solutions, the solvated EE cavities in the AGSs become more compact and can localize ∼80% of an EE, which is considerably larger than that (∼40-60% and occasionally ∼80%) in water. These observations are attributed to a modification of the hydrogen-bonded network by the introduction of glucose molecules into water. The water acts as a promoter and stabilizer, by forming voids around glucose molecules and, in this fashion, favoring the localization of an EE with high efficiency. This study provides important information about EEs in physiological AGSs and suggests a new strategy to efficiently localize an EE in a stable cavity for further exploration of biological function.

Moisture diffusivity in food materials

This paper investigates whether moisture diffusion can be predicted for food materials. We focus especially on mixtures of glucose homopolymers and water. The predictions are based on three theories: (1) the Darken relation, linking the mutual diffusivity to the self diffusivities, (2) the generalised Stokes-Einstein relation for the solute self diffusivity, and (3) the free volume theory for water self diffusivity. Using literature data obtained for the whole class of glucose homopolymer, we show that these theories predict the moisture diffusivity for the whole range of volume fractions, from zero to one, and a broad range of temperatures. Furthermore, we show that the theories equally holds for other hydrophilic biopolymers one finds in food. In the concentrated regime, all experimental data collapse to a single curve. This universal behaviour arises because these biopolymers form a hydrogen bonded network, where water molecules move via rearrangement of the free volume.

Probing of structural relaxation times in the glassy state of sucrose and trehalose based on dynamical properties of two secondary relaxation processes

Time-dependent isothermal dielectric measurements were carried out deeply in the glassy state on two very important saccharides: sucrose and trehalose. In both compounds two prominent secondary relaxation processes were identified. The faster one is an inherent feature of the whole family of carbohydrates. The slower one can also be detected in oligo- and polysaccharides. It was shown earlier that the β process is the Johari-Goldstein (JG) relaxation coupled to motions of the glycosidic linkage, while the γ relaxation originates from motions of the exocyclic hydroxymethyl unit. Recently, it was shown that the JG relaxation process can be used to determine structural relaxation times in the glassy state [R. Casalini and C. M. Roland, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 035701 (2009)]. In this paper we present the results of an analysis of the data obtained during aging using two independent approaches. The first was proposed by Casalini and Roland, and the second one is based on the variation of the dielectric strength of the secondary relaxation process during aging [J. K. Vij and G. Power, J. Non-Cryst. Solids 357, 783 (2011)]. Surprisingly, we found that the estimated structural relaxation times in the glassy state of both saccharides are almost the same, independent of the type of secondary mode. This finding calls into question the common view that secondary modes of intramolecular origin do not provide information about the dynamics of the glassy state.

Dynamics of the slow mode in the family of six-carbon monosaccharides monitored by dielectric spectroscopy

Broadband dielectric measurements performed on D-glucose, L-sorbose, D-fructose and D-galactose revealed that, except for the structural relaxation process, one can detect in the liquid phase of these carbohydrates a much slower relaxation mode. Recently we have demonstrated that in D-glucose this relaxation mode might be related to the long range correlation of density fluctuations (LRCDF), also called Fischer clusters (FC). Based on the dielectric data obtained for the four monosaccharides we were able to make a more general conclusion about the characteristic dielectric features of the slow mode in the whole family of carbohydrates. We found out that the timescale separation between structural and considered relaxation reaches up to six decades at the glass transition temperature and the dielectric strength decreases significantly with lowering temperature. Another very interesting feature of the slow process is that it can be described by an almost exponential response function. We have found out that the fragility of the slow process lies within the range m = 44-50. Finally, we have also shown that there is a close link between structural and slow relaxation.

The energy landscape for the interaction of the family 1 carbohydrate-binding module and the cellulose surface is altered by hydrolyzed glycosidic bonds

A multiscale simulation model is used to construct potential and free energy surfaces for the carbohydrate-binding module [CBM] from an industrially important cellulase, Trichoderma reesei cellobiohydrolase I, on the hydrophobic face of a coarse-grained cellulose Ibeta polymorph. We predict from computation that the CBM alone exhibits regions of stability on the hydrophobic face of cellulose every 5 and 10 A, corresponding to a glucose unit and a cellobiose unit, respectively. In addition, we predict a new role for the CBM: specifically, that in the presence of hydrolyzed cellulose chain ends, the CBM exerts a thermodynamic driving force to translate away from the free cellulose chain ends. This suggests that the CBM is not only required for binding to cellulose, as has been known for two decades, but also that it has evolved to both assist the enzyme in recognizing a cellulose chain end and exert a driving force on the enzyme during processive hydrolysis of cellulose.

Structure of polyamidoamide dendrimers up to limiting generations: a mesoscale description

The polyamidoamide (PAMAM) class of dendrimers was one of the first dendrimers synthesized by Tomalia and co-workers at Dow. Since its discovery the PAMAMs have stimulated many discussions on the structure and dynamics of such hyperbranched polymers. Many questions remain open because the huge conformation disorder combined with very similar local symmetries have made it difficult to characterize experimentally at the atomistic level the structure and dynamics of PAMAM dendrimers. The higher generation dendrimers have also been difficult to characterize computationally because of the large size (294,852 atoms for generation 11) and the huge number of conformations. To help provide a practical means of atomistic computational studies, we have developed an atomistically informed coarse-grained description for the PAMAM dendrimer. We find that a two-bead per monomer representation retains the accuracy of atomistic simulations for predicting size and conformational complexity, while reducing the degrees of freedom by tenfold. This mesoscale description has allowed us to study the structural properties of PAMAM dendrimer up to generation 11 for time scale of up to several nanoseconds. The gross properties such as the radius of gyration compare very well with those from full atomistic simulation and with available small angle x-ray experiment and small angle neutron scattering data. The radial monomer density shows very similar behavior with those obtained from the fully atomistic simulation. Our approach to deriving the coarse-grain model is general and straightforward to apply to other classes of dendrimers.

Food structure and functionality: a soft matter perspective

The structure and functionality of foods are described from the perspective of recent advances in soft condensed matter physics. An overview is given of the structure and properties of food materials in terms of the physically relevant length scales. Recent developments in the understanding of the physics of gels, micelles, liquid crystals, biopolymer complexes and amorphous carbohydrates are presented.