Nature Communications (May 2017)

Real-time monitoring of hydrophobic aggregation reveals a critical role of cooperativity in hydrophobic effect

  • Liguo Jiang,
  • Siqin Cao,
  • Peter Pak-Hang Cheung,
  • Xiaoyan Zheng,
  • Chris Wai Tung Leung,
  • Qian Peng,
  • Zhigang Shuai,
  • Ben Zhong Tang,
  • Shuhuai Yao,
  • Xuhui Huang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15639
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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Hydrophobic interactions occur between nonpolar molecules in water and their experimental quantification can help the understanding of biological self-assembly. Here Jianget al. examine the kinetics and thermodynamics of hydrophobic aggregation in a bulk environment and characterize its cooperativity.