The majority of chemical reactions, including many that are central to important industrial and virtually all biological processes, take place in a liquid-state environment. Solvents – with water being the most prominent – are used to “solvate” molecular species ranging from industrial reagents to biological molecules in living cells.
Solvents also “wet” surfaces such as lipid membranes or metal electrodes, thus creating new interfaces. An in-depth understanding of solvation at a fundamental level of chemistry, physics and engineering is essential to enable major advances in key technologies in order to reduce pollution, increase energy efficiency or prevent corrosion to name but a few challenges to our modern day society.
In the life sciences, water is the ubiquitous solvent, sometimes even called the “matrix of life”, thus understanding its function is crucial for comprehensively unravelling key biological functions.
Despite such long-standing efforts, up until quite recently a broad consensus in the literature prevailed that considered solvents to be nothing but inert media in different molecular processes. It is this concept on which most phenomenological understanding relies, such as “linear solvation free energy relations” or “continuum solvation” approaches. Transcending this traditional view, solvents are now increasingly recognized as playing an active role in their own right, ranging from solvent-mediated to solvent-controlled and even to solvent-driven processes.
Information on participating / attending:
Date:
05/14/2015 - 05/16/2015
Event venue:
Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Universitätsstrasse 150
44801 Bochum
Nordrhein-Westfalen
Germany
Target group:
Scientists and scholars
Email address:
Relevance:
transregional, national
Subject areas:
Chemistry, Materials sciences
Types of events:
Conference / symposium / (annual) conference
Entry:
08/07/2014
Sender/author:
Dr. Christine Dillmann
Department:
Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
Event is free:
no
Language of the text:
English
URL of this event: http://idw-online.de/en/event47990
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