Solvation of the amphiphilic diol molecule in aliphatic alcohol-water and fluorinated alcohol-water solutions.

We investigated the solvation properties of aqueous solutions of aliphatic alcohols and fluorinated alcohols. These included ethanol (EtOH), 2-propanol (2-PrOH), 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (TFE), and 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol (HFIP). The amphiphilic diol, 1,4-pentanediol (1,4-PD), was used as the solute to probe solvation properties at the molecular level. Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) experiments revealed that the inherent microheterogeneity of HFIP-water binary solutions was significantly enhanced by addition of 1,4-PD. In contrast, the addition of 1,4-PD to EtOH-, 2-PrOH-, and TFE-water solutions hardly changed the mixing state. Molecular dynamics simulations were used to obtain the spatial distribution functions for the oxygen atom of water molecules and the carbon and fluorine atoms of alcohol molecules around 1,4-PD. Of the alcohols studied, these spatial distributions illustrated that HFIP molecules formed the strongest hydrophobic solvation shell around the hydrocarbons of 1,4-PD. This preferential solvation of 1,4-PD by HFIP leads to enhancement of HFIP clusters in the solutions. (13)C NMR and infrared spectroscopic measurements on 1,4-PD in the different alcohol-water solutions suggested that the number of water molecules around the hydrocarbons of 1,4-PD decreased in aliphatic alcohol-water solutions. Additionally, HFIP molecules are thought to strongly interact with the hydrocarbons of 1,4-PD in HFIP-water solutions.