Unveiling the mechanism of hydrotropy: evidence for water-mediated aggregation of hydrotropes around the solute

Chem Commun (Camb). 2020 Jul 4;56(52):7143-7146. doi: 10.1039/d0cc03217d. Epub 2020 May 28.

Abstract

A recent proposal attributes the origin of hydrotropy to the water-mediated aggregation of hydrotrope molecules around the solute. Experimental evidence for this phenomenon is reported for the first time in this work, using 1H-NMR. A new computational technique to quantify apolarity is introduced and is used to show that apolarity of both solute and hydrotrope is the driving force of hydrotropy.