title: The impact of solvent relative permittivity on the dimerisation of organic molecules well below their solubility limits: examples from brewed coffee and beyond.
abstract: The formation of aqueous intermolecular dimers is governed by both the nature and strength of the intermolecular interactions and the entropy of dissolution. The former interaction energies are determined by the polarity of the solvent and the functionality of the solute. Using quantum chemical methods, we probe the energetics of dimer formation of representative compounds found in coffee well below their solubility limits. We find that with the exclusion of entropy, the dimer formation is thermodynamically unfavorable with negligible dependence on the dielectric medium.
authors.affiliation: Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751, Portland, OR 97201, USA.
authors.forename: Ellen S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Bradley
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. hendon@mit.edu.
authors.forename: Christopher H
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7132-768X
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Hendon
mesh_terms: D040503:Coffea / Q000737:chemistry*; D003069:Coffee / Q000737:chemistry*; D003296:Cooking; D006358:Hot Temperature; D012639:Seeds / Q000737:chemistry; D012995:Solubility; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D003069:Coffee