Short Hydrogen Bonds Unify the Duality of Confined Water as Both Acid and Base in Poly(vinyl alcohol) Films.
Water confined in poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) films exhibits enhanced basicity toward embedded chromophores, yet whether this anomalous reactivity reflects a broader acid-base duality remains unexplored. Here, using 5-methoxyflavone (5MF) as a photobase probe whose C═O stretch is spectrally isolated in FTIR, we uncover t...