Sucrose-water mixture: From thermodynamics to solution structure

What is the structure of sucrose-water mixture? I employ an exact statistical thermodynamic theory (Kirkwood-Buff theory) to calculate information regarding sucrose-water, water-water and sucrose-sucrose interactions solely from volumetric and osmometric data. We found that (i) Long-ranged hydration structure, beyond the first hydration shell, influences thermodynamics; (ii) The inferred minimum of the activity coefficient of water at the high sucrose concentration is due to the increases in the self association of water. These findings from a rigorous theory are consistent with previous simulation studies. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.