Exploring hydrophobicity by THz absorption spectroscopy of solvated amino acids

• DOI: 10.1039/c0fd00007h
• Publication Date: 2011-05-23T12:30:50Z
• Authors: Gudrun Niehues; Matthias Heyden; Diedrich A. Schmidt; Martina Havenith
• Keywords: Hydrophobic effect

Although hydrophobicity is a commonly used concept, its microscopic nature, particularly in the context of hydration, not well understood. Here, we present study hydrophobic and hydrophilic solutes using terahertz (THz) spectroscopy molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We measured concentration dependent THz absorption (2.1–2.7 THz) several amino acids peptides aqueous solution. Experimentally, find correlation between change solvating water specific properties solute such as polarity hydrophobicity. In addition, studied effect model particles on by MD are able to link vibrational density states (VDOS) hydration around experimentally observed solvated acids. stronger increase oxygen VDOS molecules for versus solutes. The simulations provide us with insight into induced For retardation dynamical processes picosecond timescale found, which more pronounced compared