Trehalose plus water fragile system: properties and glass transition.

Densities, molar volumes, thermal expansion coefficients, viscosities and glass transition temperatures of water and trehalose solutions are studied within the framework of strong/fragile liquids classification. The addition of water modifies the solution structure and increases the fragility. Also, the configurational entropy of solutions decreases with trehalose content. The migration of water molecules in these solutions is weakly controlled by the viscosity, but this property is important in cell preservation. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.