Exposing non-polar groups to solvent is entropically costly (due to water clathrate structure), thus, folding of the polypeptide chain so as to sequester nonpolar sidechains within the core region is "hydrophobically driven"

http://www.mikeblaber.org/oldwine/BCH4053/Lecture10/Lecture10.htm

Exposing non-polar groups to solvent is entropically costly (due to water clathrate structure), thus, folding of the polypeptide chain so as to sequester nonpolar sidechains within the core region is "hydrophobically driven"



https://blog.udemy.com/polar-vs-non-polar/
One reason that polarity matters in chemistry is that polar and non-polar molecules do not mix to form a solution. That is why oil and water do not mix: oil is non polar, while water is polar. Another reason that chemists are concerned about polarity is that it influences several physical properties of matter, such as solubility, surface tension, and melting and boiling points.

nonpolar solvent

[-pō′lər]

a liquid solvent without significant partial charges on any atoms, as in the hydrocarbons, or where the polar bonds are arranged in such a way that the effects of their partial charges cancel out, as in carbon tetrachloride. Liquid hydrocarbons are the most common examples. Also called fat solvent.

Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 9th edition. © 2009, Elsevier.

Hydrophobically-Driven Self-Assembly:  A Geometric Packing Analysis

Stefan Tsonchev ,* George C. Schatz , and Mark A. Ratner

Department of Chemistry and Center for Nanofabrication and Molecular Self-Assembly, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208

Nano Letters, 2003, 3 (5), pp 623–626

DOI: 10.1021/nl0340531

Publication Date (Web): March 20, 2003

Copyright © 2003 American Chemical Society

Abstract

We present a new approach to the problem of finding the minimum-energy structures resulting from the self-assembly of amphiphile nanoparticles possessing a hydrophobic “tail” and a hydrophilic “head”. When the repulsive interactions between the “heads” are of hard-sphere type, the approach is rigorous and is reduced to a simple geometric problem of finding the highest density structure allowed by the nanoparticle shape. Our results show that spherical micelles always have higher fractional density for cone or truncated cone nanoparticles. This does not always agree with previous, widely used, approximate methods which have served as guides in designing new nanoscale-structured materials.