Chemical reactivity and solution structure: on the way to a paradigm shift?

Abstract

Recent studies unveiled two unprecedented phenomena which together may induce a paradigm shift in understanding chemical reactivity in solutions which would no longer be related to molecular species. Research on chemical reactions under microfluidic conditions (and some other systems) revealed that the same compound involved in the same chemical reaction performed under slightly different conditions may exhibit a significantly altered chemical reactivity pattern (different chemical properties). This review aims at linking this discovery to another unusual finding that commonly used solutions are not homogeneous at the mesoscale suggesting that a solute, depending on concentration, solvent, temperature and the presence of other compounds including impurities, may exist in solutions as a variety of supramolecular species (supramers), which may also comprise solvent molecules, differing in size and structure, and hence physical and chemical properties.