The equilibrium and dynamic behavior of water in nano-scale confinement plays an important role in a number of biophysical phenomena, such as hydrophobically-driven self-assembly and the gating of ion flow across the cell membrane. The thermodynamics of confined water is one of the topics on which I have had the pleasure of collaborating with Professor Sal Torquato, and I am pleased to revisit this topic on the happy occasion of celebrating his well-deserved Hildebrand Award. I will illustrate the use of advanced sampling techniques to probe the critical role of substrate flexibility on the thermodynamics, kinetics and microscopic mechanism of nano-scale drying transitions; and to explore the origin of hysteresis in protein adsorption isotherms.

Nano-scale drying and hydration phenomena

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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