Inelastic neutron scattering by water in an ordered tobacco mosaic virus solution

Abstract

The inelastic scattering of slow neutrons was used to determine the diffusive properties of water in an oriented tobacco mosaic virus solution (TMV) at 297 K. The virus concentration was 7 ± 2 % in a pH 7.0 phosphate buffer. A well developed and low angle neutron diffraction was observed with 16 Å and 8 Å neutrons to obtain the mean water layer thickness (310 Å) between TMV rods. In the hydrodynamic limit (at low neutron momentum transfer) no difference was found between the diffusion coefficients of the interparticle water and the buffer solution but above 1 Å^–1 there was a marked difference between the quasielastic scattering for these systems.