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Science 30 August 2002:
Vol. 297. no. 5586, pp. 1540 - 1543
DOI: 10.1126/science.1074481
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Reports

Fluidity of Bound Hydration Layers

Uri Raviv,1 Jacob Klein12*

We have measured the shear forces between solid surfaces sliding past each other across aqueous salt solutions, at pressures and concentrations typical of naturally occurring systems. In such systems the surface-attached hydration layers keep the compressed surfaces apart as a result of strongly repulsive hydration forces. We find, however, that the bound water molecules retain a shear fluidity characteristic of the bulk liquid, even when compressed down to films 1.0 ± 0.3 nanometer thick. We attribute this to the ready exchange (as opposed to loss) of water molecules within the hydration layers as they rub past each other under strong compression.

1 Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
2 Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3QZ, UK.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed.

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