Hydrophobic Effect

Notes

The hydrophobic effect is when hydrophobic moleties aggregate together to free water molecules. Or, to put it plainly, when the hydrophobic regions of a molecule come together in an aqueous solution. This is because it moves the water molecules from a high energy state to a lower one as free water molecules can assume more comformations. 

Instead of being stuck interacting with the nonpolar, hydrophobic molecules they cannot interact with, these molecules interact and free the trapped water. 

For this concept, I like to think of the water molecules and the lipid tail as magnets of the same pole. When the water has to be pushed up against the lipid tale, it is going to want to push away, much like a magnet would. In trying to push them together, you will feel a great deal of resistance which shows how the water will be at a “high energy state”. 

Then, when you let them go, they will want to move away from each other, and causatively push the magnets back. If you have a magnet then on the opposite pole, it will want to move towards it. The water molecules behave very similarly, the water does not want to be around the hydrophobic tails of the lipid, but would rather interact with the hydrophilic head of the molecule, which allows it to assume more conformations.  

This is energetically favorable, as you no longer have to input all of that “force” to keep the magnets of the opposite pole together.