text: The hydrophobic effect is the desire for non-polar molecules to aggregate in aqueous solutions in order to separate from water. This phenomenon leads to minimum exposed surface area of non-polar molecules to the polar water molecules (typically spherical droplets), and is commonly used in biochemistry to study protein folding and other various biological phenomenon. The effect is also commonly seen when mixing various oils (including cooking oil) and water. Over time, oil sitting on top of water will begin to aggregate into large flattened spheres from smaller droplets, eventually leading to a film of all oil sitting atop a pool of water. However the hydrophobic effect is not considered a non-covalent interaction as it is a function of entropy and not a specific interaction between two molecules, usually characterized by entropy.enthalpy compensation. An essentially enthalpic hydrophobic effect materializes if a limited number of water molecules are restricted within a cavity; displacement of such water molecules by a ligand frees the water molecules which then in the bulk water enjoy a maximum of hydrogen bonds close to four.