Marco Beaumont, Paul Jusner, Notburga Gierlinger, Alistair W. T. King, Antje Potthast, Orlando J. Rojas , Thomas Rosenau
Nature Communications, 2021, 12, 2513
Abstract: The remarkable efficiency of chemical reactions is the result of biological evolution, often involving confined water. Meanwhile, developments of bio-inspired systems, which exploit the potential of such water, have been so far rather complex and cumbersome. Here we show that surface-confined water, inherently present in widely abundant and renewable cellulosic fibres can be utilised as nanomedium to endow a singular chemical reactivity. Compared to surface acetylation in the dry state, confined water increases the reaction rate and efficiency by 8 times and 30%, respectively.
