Abstract. The stabilization of positive and negative charges by alkyl groups (in particular) in organic compounds is often described as polarizability, but

The inductive effect is a central concept in chemistry and is often exemplified by the pKa values of acetic acid derivatives. The reduction in pKa is canonically attributed to the reduction in the ele...

Communications Chemistry, Published online: 13 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s42004-025-01694-wAlthough theoretical work has suggested the absence of an inversion temperature in aqueous solutions at infinite dilution conditions due to a lack of ion-ion interactions, this phenomenon remains underexplored. Here, the authors report phase-shifting interferometry visualisation experiments in alkali halide aqueous solutions and show that thermophobic behaviour becomes more dominant as the solution concentration decreases, and the disappearance of inversion temperatures in ultra-dilute solutions is corroborated by molecular dynamics modelling and an entropy model.