Health Dictionary
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Cage effect (chemistry)
Introduction
The cage effect in chemistry describes how properties of a molecule are affected by its surroundings.
- In a solvent a molecule is often more accurately described existing in a cage of solvent molecules, the so-called solvent cage.
- In a gas at low pressure a normally highly reactive and short lived molecule can be contained.
- specific host-guest interactions occur in inclusion compounds
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]