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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik

O 45: Mini-Symposium: Molecular scale investigations of liquid-vapor interfaces I

O 45.4: Invited Talk

Tuesday, March 2, 2021, 14:40–15:10, R3

Exploring Collisions and Reactions at the Vacuum-Water Interface using Water Microjets — •Gilbert Nathanson — Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

Gas-liquid scattering experiments provide molecular insights into collisions and reactions at the vacuum-liquid interface while minimizing interference from collisions in the vapor. Studies of liquid water in vacuum are especially challenging because of water's high vapor pressure. This tutorial will describe collisions of inert, organic, and atmospheric gases with a water microjet, a fast-flowing liquid stream no thicker than a strand of hair. The small surface area of the jet generates a thin vapor cloud that can be readily traversed by incoming and outgoing gas molecules with almost no gas-vapor collisions. Many other liquids can form microjets as well, including gasoline and jet fuel. I will illustrate the utility of these microjets by surveying experiments measuring the entry and longtime uptake of organic acids and bases into salty water and reactions of the atmospherically important gas N2O5 in water containing both salts and surfactants. These experiments help to unravel the mechanisms by which collisions lead to scattering, trapping, solvation, and interfacial acid-base and oxidation-reduction reactions.