The first observations of a different behavior of water molecules, close to the walls of its container, date back to late 1960s and early 1970s, when Drost-Hansen, upon reviewing many experimental articles, came to the conclusion that interfacial water shows structural difference.
In 1986 Deryagin and his colleagues observed an exclusion zone next to the walls of cells.
In 2006 the group of Gerald Pollack reported their observation of what they called an exclusion zone. They observed that the particles of colloidal and molecular solutes suspended in aqueous solution are profoundly and extensively excluded from the vicinity of various hydrophilic surfaces. The exclusion zone has been observed and characterized by several independent groups since those early observations.