| 1. |
- Carravetta, Vincenzo, et al.
(författare)
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An atomistic explanation of the ethanol-water azeotrope
- 2022
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Ingår i: Physical Chemistry, Chemical Physics - PCCP. - : Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). - 1463-9076 .- 1463-9084. ; 24:42, s. 26037-26045
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ethanol and water form an azeotropic mixture at an ethanol molecular percentage of similar to 91% (similar to 96% by volume), which prohibits ethanol from being further purified via distillation. Aqueous solutions at different concentrations in ethanol have been studied both experimentally and theoretically. We performed cylindrical micro-jet photoelectron spectroscopy, excited by synchrotron radiation, 70 eV above C1s ionization threshold, providing optimal atomic-scale surface-probing. Large model systems have been employed to simulate, by molecular dynamics, slabs of the aqueous solutions and obtain an atomistic description of both bulk and surface regions. We show how the azeotropic behaviour results from an unexpected concentration-dependence of the surface composition. While ethanol strongly dominates the surface and water is almost completely depleted from the surface for most mixing ratios, the different intermolecular bonding patterns of the two components cause water to penetrate to the surface region at high ethanol concentrations. The addition of surface water increases its relative vapour pressure, giving rise to the azeotropic behaviour.
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| 2. |
- Mocellin, Alexandra, et al.
(författare)
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Surface Propensity of Atmospherically Relevant Amino Acids Studied by XPS
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of Physical Chemistry B. - 1520-6106 .- 1520-5207. ; 121:16, s. 4220-4225
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Amino acids constitute an important fraction of the water-soluble organic nitrogen (WSON) compounds in aerosols and are involved in many processes in the atmosphere. In this-Work, we applied X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to study aqueous solutions of four amino acids, glycine, alanine, Valirie) and methionine, in their zwitterionic forms. We found that amino acids with hydrophilic side chains and smaller size, GLY and ALA, tend to stay in the bulk of the liquid, while the hydrophobic and bigger amino acids, VAL and MET, are found to concentrate more on the surface. We found experimental evidence that the amino acids have preferential orientation relative to the surface, with the hydrophobic side chain being closer to the surface than the hydrophilic carboxylate group. The observed amino acid surface propensity has implications in atmospheric science as the surface interactions play a central role in cloud droplet formation, and they should be considered in climate models.
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| 3. |
- Björneholm, Olle, et al.
(författare)
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Superficial Tale of Two Functional Groups : On the Surface Propensity of Aqueous Carboxylic Acids, Alkyl Amines, and Amino Acids
- 2022
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Ingår i: Accounts of Chemical Research. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0001-4842 .- 1520-4898. ; 55:23, s. 3285-3293
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- ConspectusThe gas-liquid interface of water is environmentally relevant due to the abundance of aqueous aerosol particles in the atmosphere. Aqueous aerosols often contain a significant fraction of organics. As aerosol particles are small, surface effects are substantial but not yet well understood. One starting point for studying the surface of aerosols is to investigate the surface of aqueous solutions. We review here studies of the surface composition of aqueous solutions using liquid-jet photoelectron spectroscopy in combination with theoretical simulations. Our focus is on model systems containing two functional groups, the carboxylic group and the amine group, which are both common in atmospheric organics. For alkanoic carboxylic acids and alkyl amines, we find that the surface propensity of such amphiphiles can be considered to be a balance between the hydrophilic interactions of the functional group and the hydrophobic interactions of the alkyl chain. For the same chain length, the neutral alkyl amine has a lower surface propensity than the neutral alkanoic carboxylic acid, whereas the surface propensity of the corresponding alkyl ammonium ion is higher than that of the alkanoic carboxylate ion. This different propensity leads to a pH-dependent surface composition which differs from the bulk, with the neutral forms having a much higher surface propensity than the charged ones. In aerosols, alkanoic carboxylic acids and alkyl amines are often found together. For such mixed systems, we find that the oppositely charged molecular ions form ion pairs at the surface. This cooperative behavior leads to a more organic-rich and hydrophobic surface than would be expected in a wide, environmentally relevant pH range. Amino acids contain a carboxylic and an amine group, and amino acids of biological origin are found in aerosols. Depending on the side group, we observe surface propensity ranging from surface-depleted to enriched by a factor of 10. Cysteine contains one more titratable group, which makes it exhibit more complex behavior, with some protonation states found only at the surface and not in the bulk. Moreover, the presence of molecular ions at the surface is seen to affect the distribution of inorganic ions. As the charge of the molecular ions changes with protonation, the effects on the inorganic ions also exhibit a pH dependence. Our results show that for these systems the surface composition differs from the bulk and changes with pH and that the results obtained for single-component solutions may be modified by ion-ion interactions in the case of mixed solutions.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- da Silva, Aderson Miranda, et al.
(författare)
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Surface-Altered Protonation Studied by Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Reactive Dynamics Simulations
- 2015
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Ingår i: The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1948-7185. ; 6:5, s. 807-811
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The extent to which functional groups are protonated at aqueous interfaces as compared to bulk is deemed essential to several areas in chemistry and biology. The origin of such changes has been the source of intense debate. We use X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and all-atom reactive molecular dynamics simulations as two independent methods to probe, at the molecular scale, both bulk and surface distributions of protonated species of cysteine in an aqueous solution. We show that the distribution of the cysteine species at the surface is quite different from that in the bulk. We argue that this finding, however, cannot be simply related to a change in the extent of proton sharing between the two conjugate acid/base pairs that may occur between these two regions. The present theoretical simulations identify species at the surface that are not present in the bulk.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Feifel, Raimund, et al.
(författare)
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Interference Quenching of v
- 2002
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Ingår i: Physical Review Letters. ; 89:10, s. 103002-1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)
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| 10. |
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