New research shows that these fields speed up water dissociation not by lowering energy costs, but by increasing molecular disorder once ions form. The reaction becomes entropy-driven—exactly the ...

Organic chemists have tended to avoid using water to host reactions, largely because their carbon-based molecules rarely dissolve in the liquid. Now, Burkhard König at the University of Regensburg has ...

Using an advanced technique, scientists have demonstrated that a chemical reaction powered by light takes place ten thousand times faster at the air-water interface -- what we usually call the water ...

Since our research focus for years has been on bio- and chemocatalytic synthesis in water, I read with great interest “Some Organic Chemists Want to Turn on the Tap of a Familiar Solvent” (C&EN, July ...

In nature, the behavior of systems—whether large or small—is always governed by a few fundamental principles. For instance, objects fall downward because it minimizes their energy. At the same time, ...

A new study identifies how water becomes ionized under electrochemical conditions. Hydrogen is expected to play a major role ...