PNNL

Abstract

Many experimental and theoretical studies have established the specific anion, as well as cation effects on the hydrogen-bond structures at the air/water interface of electrolyte solutions. However, the ion effects on the top-most layer of the air/water interface, which is signified by the non-hydrogen-bonded so-called ‘free O-H’ group, has not been discussed or studied. In this report, we present the measurement of changes of the orientational angle of the ‘free O-H’ group at the air/water interface of the sodium fluoride (NaF) solutions at different concentrations using the interface selective sum-frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy (SFG-VS) in the ssp and ppp polarizations. The polarization dependent SFG-VS results show that the average tilt angle of the ‘free O-H’ changes from about 35.3 degrees ± 0.5 degrees to 43.4 degrees ± 2.1degrees as the NaF concentration increase from 0 to 0.94M (nearly saturated). Such tilt angle change is around the axis of the other O-H group of the same water molecule at the top-most layer at the air/water interface that is hydrogen-bonded to the water molecules below the top-most layer. These results provide quantitative molecular details of the ion effects of the NaF salt on the structure of the water molecules at the top-most layer of the air/water interfacial, even though both the Na+ cation and the F- anion are believed to be among the most excluded ions from the air/water interface.