We study the interactions of water and hydrophobic surfaces.
By definition hydrophobic substances hate water. Water placed on a hydrophobic surface will form a drop in order to minimize its contact area. But what happens when water is forced into contact with a hydrophobic surface? One theory states that as water cannot form hydrogen bonds with hydrophobic surfaces, it tends to pull away creating a low-density region at the interface only a fraction of a nanometer thick.
Previous work using ellipsometry and x-ray
reflectivity have provided strong evidence for the existence of this low
density region. However, what happens when water meets smaller or more
flexible hydrophobic regions is still unknown. To investigate these questions,
we use highly sensitive surface techniques such as Surface
Plasmon Resonance (SPR).
Figure 1.2 The Hydrogen Bonding Network of Water
Liquid water is formed of a 3-d hydrogen-bond network, but hydrophobic
substances cannot not form hydrogen bonds, disrupting the network.
Corey Shemelya (Class of 2008) and Dr Poynor working on the SPR