2025 Articles

Probing polarity structure–function relationships in amine–water mixtures

Dach, Elizabeth May; Pisacane, Elonne; Campbell, Devon; Soh, Lindsay; Yip, Ngai Yin

This study investigates the relationships between chemical structure, polarity, and miscibility in solvent–water systems to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the thermoresponsive hydrophilicity of amines. By integrating complementary analyses of Kamlet–Taft parameters and relative permittivity,we reveal that hydrogen bonding and nanoscale ordering, i.e., molecular-level and mean-field, respectively, underlie amine–water interactions, which, in turn, influence the thermomorphic hydrophilicity.