Dynamics of the protein hydration shell experimental studies

5 Dynamics of the protein hydration shell experimental studies 

The dynamics of water in the hydration layer that surrounds a protein surface exhibits both fast and slow dynamics, but quantitative characterization of the dynamics has proven to be quite difficult. This area has also seen many divergent 

As mentioned earlier, the first signature of the influence of the protein surface on the dynamics of water came from the measurements of the rotational and translational diffusion coefficients of water in aqueous protein solutions. Analysis based on hydrodynamic formulas (such as Stokes-Einstein and Debye-Stokes-Einstein (DSE)) showed that an explanation of the observed values required a larger than actual radius of the protein to be used in the Stokes expression of the friction (from hydrodynamics). This indicated the presence of a substantially rigid water layer around the protein surface. However, the story turned out to be more complex. We have already discussed some of these aspects - we now turn to a more detailed discussion of several experimental results. 

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