Interfacial Water Organization And Ion Distributions Investigated With Vibrational Sum Frequency Spectroscopy

Abstract: Here, interface-specific nonlinear optical spectroscopies, conventional vibrational sum frequency generation (VSFG) and heterodyne-detected vibrational sum frequency generation (HD-VSFG), are employed to probe interfacial water molecules at the molecular level. HD-VSFG spectroscopy allows for direct interrogation of the average orientation of the transition dipole moment of interfacial water molecules that is intrinsically contained in the sign of the second-order nonlinear susceptibility, X(2). The water organization and ion distributions at air/aqueous interfaces of inorganic salt solutions are inferred from Im X(2) spectra obtained by HD-VSFG spectroscopy.