Destruction of the Hydration Shell around Tetraalkylammonium Ions at the Electrochemical Interface

摘要

Water molecules play important roles in chemistry, biochemistry, and physics. Hydrophilic and hydrophobic interactions of water with chemical substances greatly affect the kinetics and dynamics of chemical reactions. They can also alter the functionalities of the molecules. In biological systems, for example, hydrophobic phenomena are the driving force for protein folding and micelle and lipid-bilayer formation, etc. Tetraalkylammonium ions (R_4N~+) are often used as model systems to investigate hydrophobic phenomena. X-ray and neutron diffraction, Raman scattering, and IR absorption experiments have shown that water molecules around R_4N~+ are hydrogen-bonded to each other to form hydration shells by the so-called "hydrophobic hydration" process.