C-Phycocyanin Hydration Water Dynamics in the Presence of Trehalose: An Incoherent Elastic Neutron Scattering Study at Different Energy Resolutions

We present a study of C-phycocyanin hydration water dynamics in the presence of trehalose by incoherent elastic neutron scattering. By combining data from two backscattering spectrometers with a 10-fold difference in energy resolution we extract a scattering law S(Q,ω) from the Q-dependence of the elastic intensities without sampling the quasielastic range. The hydration water is described by two dynamically different populations—one diffusing inside a sphere and the other diffusing quasifreely—with a population ratio that depends on temperature. The scattering law derived describes the experimental data from both instruments excellently over a large temperature range (235–320 K). The effective diffusion coefficient extracted is reduced by a factor of 10–15 with respect to bulk water at corresponding temperatures. Our approach demonstrates the benefits and the efficiency of using different energy resolutions in incoherent elastic neutron scattering over a large angular range for the study of biological macromolecules and hydration water.