Review: Water at ions, biomolecules and charged surfaces

Abstract

Research that has led to writing the equation of state of an open system containing water in an electric field and to prediction of a related phase transition at the same time as its experimental discovery was announced, is reviewed. X-ray and neutron scattering, dielectric, picosecond photothermal/photoacoustic, thermal and electrochemical measurements contribute to our understanding of these phenomena and are discussed from a unique point of view. New theoretical results are presented and compared with experiment.