Supercooling and vitrification of aqueous glycerol solutions at normal and high pressures

Abstract The supercooling and vitrification of aqueous glycerol solutions was studied at high pressures. Homogeneous ice nucleation temperatures ( T H ) were obtained for aqueous glycerol solutions of R  = 50, 30, 20, 12, and 10 ( R : moles of water/moles of glycerol) up to 300 MPa. The R  = 20 glycerol solution formed a glass above 200 MPa at a cooling rate of 200 °C/min, indicating that pressure enhances glass-formation of aqueous glycerol solutions. The (d T g /d P ) values were obtained for vitrified aqueous glycerol solutions of R  = 3, 5, 10, and 20. These data can be used for the development of cryo-preservation liquids for living cells at high pressures.