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Researchers from Bochum and Berkeley have investigated why cages can increase the catalytic activity of enclosed molecules. Using terahertz spectroscopy and complex computer simulations, they showed that water encapsulated in a tiny cage has special properties - that are structurally and dynamically distinct from any known phase of water. The water forms a droplet inside the cage that facilitates the encapsulation of a host molecule, i.e. to access the catalytic centre. The research team describes the thermodynamic properties of this special form of water, which have never been observed before, in the journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (