Chemical Physics Letters, Vol.616, 44-48, 2014
Pairwise association of neopentane as a function of hydrostatic pressure
It is shown that the contact-minimum configuration of two neopentane molecules is favoured on increasing hydrostatic pressure over the range 1-4000 atm, at room temperature, in line with the methane results (Graziano, 2014). This is due to the decrease in water accessible surface area accompanying the association, that leads to a gain in configurational/translational entropy of water molecules, whose magnitude increases with hydrostatic pressure. Of course, the strengthening of pairwise hydrophobic interaction cannot shed light on the pressure-induced denaturation of globular proteins. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.