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Water: A Unique Structure, a Unique Solvent

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The Physical Basis of Biochemistry
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Abstract

Water is a unique solvent by virtue of its extensive hydrogen-bonded character in bulk phase. Biological water has properties contributed by the individual H2O molecules and by the collection of H2O molecules into a bulk phase with extensive intramolecular interactions. Therefore, on the basis of just our knowledge of statistical thermodynamics, we would expect that the important properties of biological water will depend on the behavior of the collection of molecules or the entropic nature of water. However, biological systems are nonhomogeneous, and nonbulk water plays a wide variety of physiological roles as well.

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Further Reading

General

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© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Bergethon, P.R. (1998). Water: A Unique Structure, a Unique Solvent. In: The Physical Basis of Biochemistry. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2963-4_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2963-4_18

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-2965-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-2963-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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