An official website of the United States government
Interfacial water participates in a wide range of phenomena involving graphite, graphite-like and 2D material interfaces. Recently, several high-spatial resolution experiments have questioned the existence of hydration layers on graphite, graphite-like and 2D material surfaces. Here, 3D AFM was applied to follow in real-time and with atomic-scale depth resolution the evolution of graphite–water interfaces. Pristine graphite surfaces upon immersion in water showed the presence of several hydration layers separated by a distance of 0.3 nm. Those layers were short-lived. After several minutes, the interlayer distance increased to 0.45 nm. At longer immersion times (∼50 min) we observed the formation of a third layer. An interlayer distance of 0.45 nm characterizes the layering of predominantly alkane-like hydrocarbons. Molecular dynamics calculations supported the experimental observations. The replacement of water molecules by hydrocarbons on graphite is spontaneous. It happens whenever the graphite–water volume is exposed to air.
more »
« less
Atomically resolved interfacial water structures on crystalline hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces
Hydration layers are formed on hydrophilic crystalline surfaces immersed in water. Their existence has also been predicted for hydrophobic surfaces, yet the experimental evidence is controversial. Using 3D-AFM imaging, we probed the interfacial water structure of hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces with atomic-scale spatial resolution. We demonstrate that the atomic-scale structure of interfacial water on crystalline surfaces presents two antagonistic arrangements. On mica, a common hydrophilic crystalline surface, the interface is characterized by the formation of 2 to 3 hydration layers separated by approximately 0.3 nm. On hydrophobic surfaces such as graphite or hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), the interface is characterized by the formation of 2 to 4 layers separated by about 0.5 nm. The latter interlayer distance indicates that water molecules are expelled from the vicinity of the surface and replaced by hydrocarbon molecules. This creates a new 1.5–2 nm thick interface between the hydrophobic surface and the bulk water. Molecular dynamics simulations reproduced the experimental data and confirmed the above interfacial water structures.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1945589
- PAR ID:
- 10279611
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Nanoscale
- Volume:
- 13
- Issue:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 2040-3364
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 5275 to 5283
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
The enzyme Candida Antarctica lipase B (CALB) serves here as a model for understanding connections among hydration layer dynamics, solvation shell structure, and protein surface structure. The structure and dynamics of water molecules in the hydration layer were characterized for regions of the CALB surface, divided around each α-helix, β-sheet, and loop structure. Heterogeneous hydration dynamics were observed around the surface of the enzyme, in line with spectroscopic observations of other proteins. Regional differences in the structure of the biomolecular hydration layer were found to be concomitant with variations in dynamics. In particular, it was seen that regions of higher density exhibit faster water dynamics. This is analogous to the behavior of bulk water, where dynamics (diffusion coefficients) are connected to water structure (density and tetrahedrality) by excess (or pair) entropy, detailed in the Rosenfeld scaling relationship. Additionally, effects of protein surface topology and hydrophobicity on water structure and dynamics were evaluated using multiregression analysis, showing that topology has a somewhat larger effect on hydration layer structure–dynamics. Concave and hydrophobic protein surfaces favor a less dense and more tetrahedral solvation layer, akin to a more ice-like structure, with slower dynamics. Results show that pairwise entropies of local hydration layers, calculated from regional radial distribution functions, scale logarithmically with local hydration dynamics. Thus, the Rosenfeld relationship describes the heterogeneous structure–dynamics of the hydration layer around the enzyme CALB. These findings raise the question of whether this may be a general principle for understanding the structure–dynamics of biomolecular solvation.more » « less
-
The aversion of hydrophobic solutes for water drives diverse interactions and assemblies across materials science, biology, and beyond. Here, we review the theoretical, computational, and experimental developments that underpin a contemporary understanding of hydrophobic effects. We discuss how an understanding of density fluctuations in bulk water can shed light on the fundamental differences in the hydration of molecular and macroscopic solutes; these differences, in turn, explain why hydrophobic interactions become stronger upon increasing temperature. We also illustrate the sensitive dependence of surface hydrophobicity on the chemical and topographical patterns the surface displays, which makes the use of approximate approaches for estimating hydrophobicity particularly challenging. Importantly, the hydrophobicity of complex surfaces, such as those of proteins, which display nanoscale heterogeneity, can nevertheless be characterized using interfacial water density fluctuations; such a characterization also informs protein regions that mediate their interactions. Finally, we build upon an understanding of hydrophobic hydration and the ability to characterize hydrophobicity to inform the context-dependent thermodynamic forces that drive hydrophobic interactions and the desolvation barriers that impede them.more » « less
-
This is the simulation data set for the manuscript: Arvelo DM, Comer J, Schmit J, Garcia R (2024) Interfacial water is separated from a hydrophobic silica surface by a gap of 1.2 nm. ACS Nano 18:18683–18692. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.4c05689 This data set includes all files needed to run and analyze the simulations described in the this manuscript in the molecular dynamics software NAMD, as well as the output of the simulations. LAMMPS input files for the ReaxFF simulations are also included. The files are organized into directories corresponding to the figures of the main text and supporting information. They include molecular model structure files (NAMD psf or LAMMPS data), force field parameter files (in CHARMM format or ReaxFF format), initial atomic coordinates (pdb format), NAMD or LAMMPS configuration files, Colvars configuration files, NAMD or LAMMPS log files, and output including restart files (in binary NAMD format) and trajectories in dcd format (downsampled with a stride of 100 to 20 ns per frame). Analysis is controlled by shell scripts (Bash-compatible) that call VMD Tcl scripts or python scripts. These scripts and their output are also included. Version: 1.0. Figure5AC: Simulation of pentadecane on a 5 chains/nm^2 OTS layer. Figure5B_FigureS7: Calculation of force profile for an SiO2 tip asperity model using adaptive biasing force. Systems: octane with 5 chains/nm^2 OTS, octane with 4 chains/nm^2 OTS, decane with 5 chains/nm^2 OTS, water with 5 chains/nm^2 OTS. FigureS6: Simulations showing the effect of octadecane on the structure of the OTS layer for 3 and 5 chains/nm^2 densities. FigureS8: Calculation of the adsorption free energy of tetracosane (C24) at the OTS–water interface using ABF. FigureS9: Python script for estimating the critical concentration to form an alkane layer at the OTS–water interface using the mean-field Ising model. FigureS10: ReaxFF simulation and modeling to create the silanol-terminated amorphous silica model of an AFM tip asperity. FigureS11: Molecular dynamics simulations showing spontaneous assembly of twelve or twenty-four tetracosane (C24) molecules at the interface between water and the alkyl groups of an OTS-conjugated silica surface.more » « less
-
Mitigating the attachment of microorganisms to polymer biomaterials is critical for preventing hospital-acquired infections. Two chemical strategies to mitigate fouling include fabricating fouling-resistant surfaces, which typically present hydrophilic polymers, such as polyethylene glycol (PEG), or creating fouling-release surfaces, which are generally hydrophobic featuring polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Despite the demonstrated promise of employing PEG or PDMS, amphiphilic PEG/PDMS copolymer materials remain understudied. Here, for the first time, we investigated if phase-separated amphiphilic copolymers confounded microbial adhesion. We used bottlebrush amphiphilic PEG/PDMS co-networks and homopolymer networks to study bacterial adhesion across a library of gels (ϕPEG = 0.00, 0.21, 0.40, 0.55, 0.80, and 1.00). Hydrated atomic force microscopy measurements revealed that most of the gels had low surface roughness, less than 5 nm, and an elastic modulus of ∼80 kPa. Interestingly, the surface roughness and elastic modulus of the ϕPEG = 0.40 gel were twice as high as those of the other gels due to the presence of crystalline domains, as confirmed using polarized optical microscopy on the hydrated gel. The interactions of these six well-characterized gels with bacteria were determined using Escherichia coli K12 MG1655 and Staphylococcus aureus SH1000. The attachment of both microbes decreased by at least 60% on all polymer gels versus the glass controls. S. aureus adhesion peaked on the ϕPEG = 0.40, likely due to its increased elastic modulus, consistent with previous literature demonstrating that modulus impacts microbial adhesion. These findings suggest that hydrophilic, hydrophobic, and amphiphilic biomaterials effectively resist the early attachment of Gram-negative and Gram-positive microorganisms, providing guidance for the design of next-generation antifouling surfaces.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1039/d1nr00351h
