The surface tension of electrolyte solutions exhibits a minimum at millimolar electrolyte
concentrations and then rises with increasing concentration. This minimum, known as the
Jones-Ray effect, has been hotly debated over the past∼ 80 years. If not considered as an
artifact, it is typically ascribed to a phenomenological rare binding site for ions or ion pairs.
Here, we propose an alternative underlying mechanism, namely that the hydrogen bond
network of water responds to the collective electrostatic field of ions by increasing its …