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Updated: Aug 19, 2026
Controlling the Size, Shape and Stability of Supramolecular Polymers in Water
Published on: August 2, 2012
Role of hydration and water structure in biological and colloidal interactions
J Israelachvili1, H Wennerström
1Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara 93106, USA.
Abstract:
The conventional explanation of why hydrophilic surfaces and macromolecules remain well separated in water is that they experience a monotonically repulsive hydration force owing to structuring of water molecules at the surfaces. A consideration of recent experimental and theoretical results suggests an alternative interpretation in which hydration forces are either attractive or oscillatory, and where repulsions have a totally different origin. Further experiments are needed to distinguish between these possibilities.
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