Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 24, 2026

Flash NanoPrecipitation for the Encapsulation of Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Compounds in Polymeric Nanoparticles
Published on: January 7, 2019
A local fingerprint for hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity: From methane to peptides
S Pérez-Conesa1, Pablo M Piaggi2, Michele Parrinello3
1Department of Physical Chemistry, University of Seville, 41012 Seville, Spain.
Abstract:
An important characteristic that determines the behavior of a solute in water is whether it is hydrophobic or hydrophilic. The traditional classification is based on chemical experience and heuristics. However, this does not reveal how the local environment modulates this important property. We present a local fingerprint for hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity inspired by the two body contribution to the entropy. This fingerprint is an inexpensive, quantitative, and physically meaningful way of studying hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity that only requires as input the water-solute radial distribution functions. We apply our fingerprint to octanol, benzene, and 20 proteinogenic amino acids. Our measure of hydrophilicity is coherent with chemical experience, and moreover, it also shows how the character of an atom can change as its environment is changed. Finally, we use the fingerprint as a collective variable in a funnel metadynamics simulation of a host-guest system. The fingerprint serves as a desolvation collective variable that enhances transitions between the bound and unbound states.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
IR Frequency Region: Fingerprint Region
Peptide Bonds
Local Attraction
Protein and Protein Structure
A protein's shape is critical to its function. For example, an enzyme...
Local Anesthetics: Pharmacokinetics
Peptide Identification Using Tandem Mass Spectrometry
This technique helps gather information regarding the protein from which the peptide was obtained and to study the peptides’ amino acid sequence. Identifying peptides from a complex mixture is an important component of the growing field of...

