Our understanding of cryo-preservative effects of various solvent mixtures used commercially in cryopreservation has been based on the preservation of the fluid lamellar phase during slow freezing and resultant dehydration. The important issue is the viability of biological material after rehydration. This project aims to provide important insights into the protective mechanisms of small solute molecules on the ubiquitous fluid lamellar phase of lipid bilayers during freezing using neutron lamellar diffraction and X-ray scattering. The interactions of small solute molecules, for example certain sugars, has been examined in detail and a mechanistic explanation has been established based on the perspective of neutron lamellar diffraction. In an extension of this work, a novel solvent system, based on deep eutectic solvents, has been developed and shown to result in improved cell viability after cryopreservation. This work will be a detailed examination of this deep eutectic system, the interaction of the constituents with the bilayer and the phase behavior of model bilayer systems. We hope to use the perspectives developed here to design better cryo-protectants and better ensure the viability of biological materials after cryopreservation. As well as the planned structural studies with diffraction there is scope for a parallel molecular dynamics studies.