Molecular Dynamics Study to Identify the Reactive Sites of a Liquid Squalane Surface

Distinguishing Mechanisms for Reactive Uptake at Liquid Surfaces via Angular Distributions of Inelastically Scattered Molecules

Angular distributions of OH inelastically scattered from the surfaces of the reactive hydrocarbon liquids squalane (fully saturated) and squalene (partially unsaturated) have been measured. A pulsed, rotationally cold molecular beam (Ei = 35 kJ mol-1) of OH was scattered from refreshed liquid surfaces in a vacuum. Spatially and temporally resolved OH number densities were measured by pulsed, planar laser-induced fluorescence. Results are compared with those for the inert liquid perfluoropolyether. The clearly asymmetric distributions for 45° incidence add to the weight of evidence for predominantly impulsive scattering from all three liquids. However, we propose that significant differences in their shapes may be diagnostic of contrasting reaction mechanisms. Direct, near-specular trajectories survive preferentially on squalene, consistent with an addition mechanism removing those at more backward angles. This trend is reversed for squalane, as expected for direct abstraction. The results reinforce the need to consider the effects of composition-dependent contributions from different reaction mechanisms in the modeling of OH-aging of atmospheric aerosol particles.

Determining the composition of the vacuum-liquid interface in ionic-liquid mixtures

The vacuum-liquid interfaces of a number of ionic-liquid mixtures have been investigated using the combination of reactive-atom scattering with laser-induced fluorescence detection (RAS-LIF), selected surface tension measurements, and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The mixtures are based on the widespread 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium ([C_nmim]⁺) cation, including mixed cations which differ in chain length or chemical functionality with a common anion; and different anions for a common cation. RAS-LIF results imply that the surface compositions exhibit a general form of non-stoichiometric behaviour that mimics the well-known Henry's and Raoult's laws at low and high mole fraction, respectively. The extended Langmuir model provides a moderately good single-parameter fit, but higher-order terms are required for an accurate description. The quantitative relationship between RAS-LIF and surface tension, which probes the surface composition only indirectly, is explored for mixtures of [C₂mim]⁺ and [C₁₂mim]⁺ with a common bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([NTf₂]^-) anion. Extended Langmuir model fits to surface tension data are broadly consistent with those to RAS-LIF; however, several other common approaches to extracting surface compositions from measured surface tensions result in much larger discrepancies. MD simulations suggest that RAS-LIF faithfully reports on the alkyl-chain exposure at the surface, which is only subtly modified by composition-dependent structural reorganisation.

Model for the alpha and beta shear-mechanical properties of supercooled liquids and its comparison to squalane data

This paper presents data for supercooled squalane's frequency-dependent shear modulus covering frequencies from 10 mHz to 30 kHz and temperatures from 168 K to 190 K; measurements are also reported for the glass phase down to 146 K. The data reveal a strong mechanical beta process. A model is proposed for the shear response of the metastable equilibrium liquid phase of supercooled liquids. The model is an electrical equivalent-circuit characterized by additivity of the dynamic shear compliances of the alpha and beta processes. The nontrivial parts of the alpha and beta processes are each represented by a "Cole-Cole retardation element" defined as a series connection of a capacitor and a constant-phase element, resulting in the Cole-Cole compliance function well-known from dielectrics. The model, which assumes that the high-frequency decay of the alpha shear compliance loss varies with the angular frequency as ω^-1/2, has seven parameters. Assuming time-temperature superposition for the alpha and beta processes separately, the number of parameters varying with temperature is reduced to four. The model provides a better fit to the data than an equally parametrized Havriliak-Negami type model. From the temperature dependence of the best-fit model parameters, the following conclusions are drawn: (1) the alpha relaxation time conforms to the shoving model; (2) the beta relaxation loss-peak frequency is almost temperature independent; (3) the alpha compliance magnitude, which in the model equals the inverse of the instantaneous shear modulus, is only weakly temperature dependent; (4) the beta compliance magnitude decreases by a factor of three upon cooling in the temperature range studied. The final part of the paper briefly presents measurements of the dynamic adiabatic bulk modulus covering frequencies from 10 mHz to 10 kHz in the temperature range from 172 K to 200 K. The data are qualitatively similar to the shear modulus data by having a significant beta process. A single-order-parameter framework is suggested to rationalize these similarities.

Atomic and Molecular Collisions at Liquid Surfaces

The gas-liquid interface remains one of the least explored, but nevertheless most practically important, environments in which molecular collisions take place. These molecular-level processes underlie many bulk phenomena of fundamental and applied interest, spanning evaporation, respiration, multiphase catalysis, and atmospheric chemistry. We review here the research that has, during the past decade or so, been unraveling the molecular-level mechanisms of inelastic and reactive collisions at the gas-liquid interface. Armed with the knowledge that such collisions with the outer layers of the interfacial region can be unambiguously distinguished, we show that the scattering of gas-phase projectiles is a promising new tool for the interrogation of liquid surfaces with extreme surface sensitivity. Especially for reactive scattering, this method also offers absolute chemical selectivity for the groups that react to produce a specific observed product.

Reactive Scattering as a Chemically Specific Analytical Probe of Liquid Surfaces

In this Perspective, we highlight some recent progress in the reactive scattering of "chemical probe" species such as atoms or small radicals from liquid surfaces. We emphasize in particular the evolution of this area from purely dynamical studies of the scattering mechanism. The mechanistic understanding that has now been gained is sufficiently mature to allow the same methods to be used as an effective analytical tool. The use of this approach to measure liquid-surface composition and structure is illustrated through the scattering of O((3)P) atoms from a common, imidazolium-based family of ionic liquids.

Collisions of noble gases with supercooled sulfuric acid-water solutions

The collisions of hyperthermal noble gases (He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe) with supercooled binary sulfuric acid-water mixtures (57-77 wt%) were explored in the temperature range between 210 and 240 K. The experiments were performed by directing a molecular beam of the respective gases onto a continuously renewed liquid surface and monitoring the velocity of the scattered molecules by mass spectrometry. Depending on the initial translational energies and molecular masses, we observe both inelastic scattering from the surface as well as thermalization followed by subsequent desorption. The experiments indicate that the repulsive momentum transfer in the inelastic scattering channel increases with increasing mass of the impinging gas, while it is only weakly affected by the initial velocities. The final energy of the thermally desorbing atoms can always be approximated by a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution equal to the liquid bulk phase temperature. The influence of the binary composition of the liquid phase is only noticeable in the case of Ne, whilst this dependence diminishes for gases with molecular masses >or=40 amu. The probability of thermalisation relative to inelastic scattering increases with the bulk phase temperature, independent of the molecular masses of the colliding gas. In contrast, the fractional energy transfer during collision does not increase with temperature, except for Neon. These results can be interpreted in the model framework of hard-sphere collisions of noble gases with the surface, during which water and sulfuric acid molecules interact independently with the impinging gas.

Barriers of Hydrogen Abstraction from Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Alkane Sites by O(3P)

We present an extensive study of the barriers of hydrogen abstraction from primary, secondary, and tertiary sites of acyclic alkanes by ground-state oxygen atoms. Our studies include the characterization of the lowest-energy transition states of the O(3P) reactions with methane, ethane, propane, isobutane, and isopentane using high-level ab initio methods. The order of the calculated barriers heights is primary > secondary > tertiary, in agreement with the trends gleaned from kinetic measurements. Analysis of the transition-state geometry reveals a shift toward more reagents-like structures in the primary --> secondary --> tertiary sequence, which concurs with the expectation from Hammond's postulate. Using the ab initio data, we calculate thermal rate constants via transition-state theory. Our highest-level calculations indicate that the room-temperature relative reactivities of primary, secondary, and tertiary alkane sites in hydrogen-abstraction reactions by ground-state oxygen atoms are 1, 29, and 422, respectively. These results are used to interpret recent experiments on the reactions of O(3P) with liquid alkanes.

Theoretical Investigation of Hyperthermal Reactions at the Gas−Liquid Interface: O (3P) and Squalane

Hyperthermal collisions (5 eV) of ground-state atomic oxygen [O ((3)P)] with a liquid-saturated hydrocarbon, squalane (C(30)H(62)), have been studied using QM/MM hybrid "on-the-fly" direct dynamics. The surface structure of the liquid squalane is obtained from a classical molecular dynamics simulation using the OPLS-AA force field. The MSINDO semiempirical Hamiltonian is combined with OPLS-AA for the QM/MM calculations. In order to achieve a more consistent and efficient simulation of the collisions, we implemented a dynamic partitioning of the QM and MM atoms in which atoms are assigned to QM or MM regions based on their proximity to "seed" (open-shell) atoms that determine where bond making/breaking can occur. In addition, the number of seed atoms is allowed to increase or decrease as time evolves so that multiple reactive events can be described. The results show that H abstraction is the most important process for all incident angles, with H elimination, double H abstraction, and C-C bond cleavage also being important. A number of properties of these reactive channels, as well as inelastic nonreactive scattering, are investigated, including angular and translational energy distributions, the effect of incident collision angle, variation with depth of the reactive event within the liquid, with the reaction site on the hydrocarbon, and the effect of dynamics before and after reaction (direct reaction versus trapping reaction-desorption).