Publication Date:
2011-10-05
Description:
Hydrophobicity operates over many scales, from the demixing of oil and water at the macroscopic scale to the folding of proteins in water at the molecular scale. The physics governing hydrophobicity at the two length scales are, however, fundamentally different (1). The hydration of large solutes is governed by surface tension, which favors lower surface area and causes oil drops to coalesce. The surface tension decreases monotonically with increasing temperature, and so does the driving force for coalescence. In contrast, at the microscopic scale, hydrophobic effects vary nonmonotonically, typically becoming stronger and reaching a maximum before decreasing with increasing temperature...
Print ISSN:
0027-8424
Electronic ISSN:
1091-6490
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
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