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Updated: May 17, 2026

Controlling the Size, Shape and Stability of Supramolecular Polymers in Water
Published on: August 2, 2012
Significant hydration shell formation instead of hydrogen bonds in nanoconfined aqueous electrolyte solutions
Tomonori Ohba1, Kenji Hata, Hirofumi Kanoh
1Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan. ohba@pchem2.s.chiba-u.ac.jp
Abstract:
Nanoscale confined electrolyte solutions are frequently observed, specifically in electrochemistry and biochemistry. However, the mechanism and structure of such electrolyte solutions are not well understood. We investigated the structure of aqueous electrolyte solutions in the internal nanospaces of single-walled carbon nanotubes, using synchrotron X-ray diffraction. The intermolecular distance between the water molecules in the electrolyte solution was increased because of anomalously strong hydration shell formation. Water correlation was further weakened at second-neighbor or longer distances. The anomalous hydrogen-bonding structure improves our understanding of electrolyte solutions in nanoenvironments.
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