A Revisit of the Conformational Stability of the Tetraethylammonium Ion in Water

In this paper, we describe the conformational stability due to the local structural change of tetraethylammonium ion (abbreviated as Et4N+) in water and alcohols. Our results indicated that the conformational stability of Et4N+ has a close relation to the solvation of aqueous tetraalkylammonium salt (R4NX) solutions. Furthermore, we discussed the relationship between the thermodynamic properties and microscopic information. We showed that the hydrophobic interactions and hydration are affected by the enthalpy and entropy differences of the Et4N+ conformers in aqueous Et4NX solutions, where the thermodynamic parameters of the conformers may be useful for explaining the changes.