Kosmotrope character of maltose in water mixtures

It is well known that water plays a fundamental role for living beings, because the nature of water transformations provides for the ability to preserve biostructures. Solute can be classified as "kosmotropes" or "chaotropes" depending on the interaction strength with water. In the case of solutes destroying the natural hydrogen bonded network of water, called "kosmotropes" or "structure-makers", the denaturation processes can be inhibited. The aim of this work is to investigate the vibrational behaviour of maltose/H2O mixtures in order to characterise the changes induced by the sugar on the H2O hydrogen-bonded network. The obtained findings point out that maltose has a destructuring effect on the water tetrahedral network and emphasise its kosmotrope character. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.