Sculpting the Oil−Water Interface to Probe Ion Solvation

The oil-water interface: mapping the solvation potential

An ion moving across an oil-water interface experiences strong solvation changes. We have directly measured the solvation potential from 0.4 to 4 nm for Cs(+) ions approaching the oil-water interface from the oil side ("oil" = 3-methylpentane). The interfaces were built at 30 K using molecular beam epitaxy. Ions were precisely placed within the film during its growth using a soft-landing ion beam. The ion's collective electric field was progressively increased (by adding more ions) until it balanced the individual ion's solvation potential slope. As the samples were slowly warmed, near 90 K the ions began moving, as measured by a Kelvin probe. Their motion precisely determines the local slope of the solvation potential, which was integrated to get the potential. The potential is Born-like for z > 0.4 nm away from the oil-water interface. Our method could provide important tests of theoretical estimates of ion motion at biological interfaces and in atmospheric aerosols.

Hydronium ion motion in nanometer 3-methyl-pentane films

An ion soft-landing approach was applied to study the motion of hydronium (D(3)O(+)) and cesium (Cs(+)) ions from 84 to 104 K in glassy 3-methyl-pentane (3MP) films vapor deposited on Pt(111). Both ions were found to have very similar mobilities in 3MP. The span of ion mobilities probed is from approximately 10(-18) to approximately 10(-13) m(2) V(-1) s(-1). Ion transport in these films was studied as a function of film thickness and electric field strength. The drift velocity was found to be linear with applied field below about 2 x 10(8) Vm and deviated from linearity above this. To a large extent, D(3)O(+) and Cs(+) motion in 3MP was well predicted by a simple continuum-based ion mobility model in films from 25 to 20,000 ML thick (including pronounced perturbations 7 ML from both the vacuum and Pt interfaces). The mobility varied with temperature more slowly than predicted by Stokes' law, which may be due to extended inhomogeneous structures in the 3MP near its glass transition at 77 K.