Interplays of Interfacial Forces Modulate Structure and Function of Soft and Biological Matters in Aquatic Environments

Abstract

Water had been considered as a passive matrix that merely fills up the space, supporting the diffusion of solute molecules. In the past several decades, a number of studies have demonstrated that water play vital roles in regulating structural orders of biological systems over several orders of magnitude. Water molecules take versatile structures, many of which are transient. Water molecules act as hydrogen bond donors as well as acceptors and biochemical reactions utilize water molecules as nucleophiles. Needless to say, the same principle holds for the synthetic materials that function under water: the conformation, dynamics and functions of molecules are significantly influenced by the surrounding water. This review sheds light on how the structure and function of soft and biological matter in aquatic environments are modulated by the orchestration of various interfacial forces.

Aliquots of MIL-140 and Graphene in Smart PNIPAM Mixed Hydrogels: A Nanoenvironment for a More Eco-Friendly Treatment of NaCl and Humic Acid Mixtures by Membrane Distillation

“…An option could be to confine small quantities of materials to the membrane surface considering that interfacial interactions between the membrane and surrounding environment can decide the final result [23,[30][31][32][33][34][35]. In every membrane process, including MD operations, engineered membrane surfaces are in fact already expected to establish selective interactions with approaching solutions at the early stage [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49]. Affinity and repulsive forces can be established at the interface so that permeation and/or refoulement can be well addressed.…”