Hydrophobe/water interfaces are crucial for many chemical processes, but to be fully understood, a better appreciation of the behaviour of non-hydrogen-bonded OH groups of water is required. It is now shown that such ‘dangling’ OH structures are entropically stabilized and form cooperatively, that is, the probability of their formation depends nonlinearly on hydrophobic surface area.
- Joel G. Davis
- Blake M. Rankin
- Dor Ben-Amotz