Viscosity of Cryoprotective Agents Near Glass Transition: A New Device, Technique, and Data on DMSO, DP6, and VS55

The low strain-rate viscosity of glass-forming cryoprotective agents (CPAs) in the vicinity of the glass transition is studied experimentally. Data on the mechanical behavior in this regime is necessary to the long-term goal of developing planning tools for cryopreservation via vitrification (vitreous means glassy in Latin); such tools will provide guidelines for reducing thermal stress with its devastating effects. While the flow behavior of some glass-forming CPAs is well documented in the literature for the upper part of the cryogenic temperature range (where the CPA has a comparatively low viscosity), it is the flow behavior near the glass transition temperature (where the CPA behaves as nearly a solid with an extremely high viscosity) which is critical to the analysis of stress that develops in the cryopreserved material. If the elevated viscosity limits the material’s ability to flow—in order to accommodate the thermal strain resulting from large temperature gradients, especially at the high cooling rates necessary to form glass—structural damage may follow. Information on the behavior of the CPA in the lower part of the cryogenic temperature range is largely unavailable. A new measurement device is presented in this study, in which a solid rod is pulled from a long narrow cup containing a CPA, producing an essentially one-dimensional and isothermal field of flow. The viscosity and relaxation time of the CPA is inferred from measurements of the resulting load on the rod when extracted at a constant velocity. The current study reports on experimental data near glass transition of 7.05 M DMSO, a reference CPA solution, and the CPA cocktails VS55 and DP6.