title: Glassy behavior of denatured DNA films studied by differential scanning calorimetry.
abstract: We use differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to study the properties of DNA films, made of oriented fibers, heated above the thermal denaturation temperature of the double helical form. The films show glassy properties that we investigate in two series of experiments, a slow cooling at different rates followed by a DSC scan upon heating and aging at a temperature below the glass transition. Introducing the fictive temperature to characterize the glass allows us to derive quantitative information on the relaxations of the DNA films, in particular to evaluate their enthalpy barrier. A comparison with similar aging studies on PVAc highlights some specificities of the DNA samples.
authors.affiliation: Institut Laue Langevin, BP 156, 6, rue Jules Horowitz, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France. valleorero@ill.fr
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Valle-Orero
authors.forename: Jean-Luc
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Garden
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Richard
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wildes
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Peyrard
mesh_terms: D002152:Calorimetry, Differential Scanning; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D009691:Nucleic Acid Denaturation; D013696:Temperature; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D004247:DNA