Scientists from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Peking University revealed ordered-to-disordered transformation of enhanced water structure on hydrophobic surfaces in concentrated alcohol-water solutions. The research was published in Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.
The effects of hydrophobic solutes on the structure of the surrounding water have been a topic of debate for almost 70 years. A consistent description of the physical insight into the causes of the anomalous thermodynamic properties of alcohol-water mixtures is lacking.
The researchers employed the temperature-dependent FTIR spectroscopy combined with the femtosecond infrared spectroscopy to explore the water structural transformation in concentrated alcohol-water solutions.
The results showed that the enhancement of water structure arose around micro-hydrophobic interfaces at room temperature in the solutions.
As temperature increased, this ordered water structure disappeared and a surface topography dependent new disordered water structure appeared at concentrated solutions of large alcohols. A more-ordered-than-water structure could transform into a less-ordered-than-water structure.
Effect of alcohol size on water structural transformation in concentrated alcohol-water solutions. (Image by YUAN Kaijun)
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Chemical Dynamics Research Center.
Researchers from the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography used all available Landsat images based on the Google Earth Engine platform and the adjacent-years interpolation method to describe the dynamics of surface water in Central Asia with a 30-m spatial resolutio...
Prof. JIN Zhao's team from the Institute of Earth Environment conducted extensive field investigation and experiments to enhance the understanding of water chemistry, inorganic nitrogen and environmental isotope levels in a dammed watershed and a natural watershed, reveal...
86-10-68597521 (day)
86-10-68597289 (night)
86-10-68511095 (day)
86-10-68512458 (night)
cas_en@cas.cn
52 Sanlihe Rd., Xicheng District,
Beijing, China (100864)
Copyright © 2002 - Chinese Academy of Sciences
