The first neighbour model, FNM, used frequently for the description of hydration has been modified by dropping the assumption that the structure of the "free" solvent is identical with that of the pure solvent. The modified model, FNM2, reproduces the experimental X-ray structure functions of alkali chloride solutions quite well and enables the study of perturbed solventsolvent interactions. Th...

Treatment with solvent/detergent is a widely used method for ensuring the virus safety of plasma products. In the present study, virus inactivation by a novel solvent/detergent combination, i.e. TnBP (tri-n-butyl phosphate) and polysorbate 20 during the manufacture of the factor VIII/VWF concentrate Optivate has been investigated. The inactivation of most enveloped viruses was rapid, i.e. > 5 l...

In a combined experimental and computational study of a group of para-substituted azobenzenes, the effects of substituents and solvent on the kinetics of thermal cis-to-trans isomerisation have been examined and the success of DFT calculations in predicting kinetic parameters assessed. Mono-substituted species are predicted to isomerise by inversion in both non-polar and polar solvent, whereas ...

Optical absorption and emission studies have been carried out to understand the effect of deuterium on the solvent dependent photophysical properties of curcumin in deuterated solvents such as CDCl3, (CD3)2SO, (CD3)2CO, CD3OD and CD3CN. Optical absorption spectral studies showed that there is no significant shift in absorption maxima compared to the non-deuterated solvent. The fluorescence maxi...

The activity coefficient is largely considered an empirical parameter that was traditionally introduced to correct the non-ideality observed in thermodynamic systems such as osmotic pressure. Here, the activity coefficient of free-solvent is related to physically realistic parameters and a mathematical expression is developed to directly predict the activity coefficients of free-solvent, for aq...

The treatment of hydration effects in protein dynamics simulations varies in model complexity and spans the range from the computationally intensive microscopic evaluation to simple dielectric screening of charge-charge interactions. This paper compares different solvent models applied to the problem of estimating the free-energy difference between two loop conformations in acetylcholinesterase...

We report a study on directed self-assembly (DSA) with solvent annealing to induce the formation of non-bulk block copolymer microdomains on chemical patterns. Ultrathin films of symmetric polystyrene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS-b-PMMA) display morphologies of PMMA dots, stripes, and PS hexagons with increasing exposure time to acetone vapor, a PMMA-selective solvent. All three nanostru...

In order to determine the chemical composition distribution (CCD) of styrene-butadiene copolymers, gradient polymer elution chromatography has been performed. The separation is mainly based on differences in solubility among the copolymer molecules with different chemical composition. The solubility of a copolymer is dependent on the following parameters: temperature, type of solvent/non-solven...

The emergent properties that arise from self-assembly and molecular recognition phenomena are a direct consequence of non-covalent interactions. Gas-phase measurements and computational methods point to the dominance of dispersion forces in molecular association, but solvent effects complicate the unambiguous quantification of these forces in solution. Here, we have used synthetic molecular bal...