Journal
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS
Volume 110, Issue 10, Pages -Publisher
AMER PHYSICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.105701
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- CONACYT [169125]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In the supramolecular chemistry field, intuitive concepts such as molecular complementarity and molecular recognition are used to explain the mechanism of lock-key associations. However, these concepts lack a precise definition, and consequently this mechanism is not well defined and understood. Here we address the physical basis of this mechanism, based on formal statistical mechanics, through Monte Carlo simulation and compare our results with recent experimental data for charged or uncharged lock-key colloids. We find that, given the size range of the molecules involved in these associations, the entropy contribution, driven by the solvent, rules the interaction, over that of the enthalpy. A universal behavior for the uncharged lock-key association is found. Based on our results, we propose a supramolecular chemistry definition. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.105701
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available