Size dependent ultrafast cooling of water droplets in microemulsions by picosecond infrared spectroscopy

Slow Proton Transfer in Nanoconfined Water

The transport of protons in nanoconfined environments, such as in nanochannels of biological or artificial proton conductive membranes, is essential to chemistry, biology, and nanotechnology. In water, proton diffusion occurs by hopping of protons between water molecules. This process involves the rearrangement of many hydrogen bonds and as such can be strongly affected by nanoconfinement. We study the vibrational and structural dynamics of hydrated protons in water nanodroplets stabilized by a cationic surfactant using polarization-resolved femtosecond infrared transient absorption spectroscopy. We determine the time scale of proton hopping in the center of the water nanodroplets from the dynamics of the anisotropy of the transient absorption signals. We find that in small nanodroplets with a diameter <4 nm, proton hopping is more than 10 times slower than in bulk water. Even in relatively large nanodroplets with a diameter of ∼7 nm, we find that the rate of proton hopping is slowed by ∼4 times compared with bulk water.

Energy Relaxation and Thermal Diffusion in Infrared Pump-Probe Spectroscopy of Hydrogen-Bonded Liquids

Infrared pump-probe spectroscopy provides detailed information about the dynamics of hydrogen-bonded liquids. Due to dissipation of the absorbed pump pulse energy, thermal equilibration dynamics also contributes to the observed signal. Disentangling this contribution from the molecular response remains a challenge. By performing non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations of liquid-deuterated methanol, we show that faster molecular vibrational relaxation and slower heat diffusion are decoupled and occur on different length scales. Transient structures of the hydrogen bonding network influence thermal relaxation by affecting thermal diffusivity over a length scale of several nanometers.

Melting dynamics of ice in the mesoscopic regime

How does a crystal melt? How long does it take for melt nuclei to grow? The melting mechanisms have been addressed by several theoretical and experimental works, covering a subnanosecond time window with sample sizes of tens of nanometers and thus suitable to determine the onset of the process but unable to unveil the following dynamics. On the other hand, macroscopic observations of phase transitions, with millisecond or longer time resolution, account for processes occurring at surfaces and time limited by thermal contact with the environment. Here, we fill the gap between these two extremes, investigating the melting of ice in the entire mesoscopic regime. A bulk ice I _h or ice VI sample is homogeneously heated by a picosecond infrared pulse, which delivers all of the energy necessary for complete melting. The evolution of melt/ice interfaces thereafter is monitored by Mie scattering with nanosecond resolution, for all of the time needed for the sample to reequilibrate. The growth of the liquid domains, over distances of micrometers, takes hundreds of nanoseconds, a time orders of magnitude larger than expected from simple H-bond dynamics.

Vibrational Relaxation of the Aqueous Proton in Acetonitrile: Ultrafast Cluster Cooling and Vibrational Predissociation

We study the ultrafast O-H stretch vibrational relaxation dynamics of protonated water clusters embedded in a matrix of deuterated acetonitrile, using polarization-resolved mid-IR femtosecond spectroscopy. The clusters are produced by mixing triflic (trifluoromethanesulfonic) acid and H2O in molar ratios of 1:1, 1:2, and 1:3, thus varying the degree of hydration of the proton. At all hydration levels the excited O-H stretch vibration of the hydrated proton shows an ultrafast vibrational relaxation with a time constant T1 < 100 fs, leading to an ultrafast local heating of the protonated water cluster. This excess thermal energy, initially highly localized to the region of the excited proton, first re-distributes over the aqueous cluster and then dissipates into the surrounding acetonitrile matrix. For clusters with a triflic acid to H2O ratio of 1:3 these processes occur with time constants of 320 ± 20 fs and 1.4 ± 0.1 ps, respectively. The cooling of the clusters reveals a long-living, underlying transient absorption change with high anisotropy. We argue that this feature stems from the vibrational predissociation of a small fraction of the proton hydration structures, directly following the ultrafast infrared excitation.

Hydrogen bond dynamics in primary alcohols: a femtosecond infrared study

Hydrogen-bonded liquids are excellent solvents, in part due to the highly dynamic character of the directional interaction associated with the hydrogen bond. Here we study the vibrational and reorientational dynamics of deuterated hydroxyl groups in various primary alcohols using polarization-resolved femtosecond infrared spectroscopy. We show that the relaxation of the OD stretch vibration is similar for ethanol and its higher homologues (∼0.9 ps), while it is appreciably faster for methanol (∼0.75 ps). The fast relaxation for methanol is attributed to strong coupling of the OD stretch vibration to the overtone of the CH3 rocking mode. Subsequent to excited state relaxation, the dissipation of the excess energy leads to structural relaxation of the alcohol liquid structure. We show that this relaxation of the H-bonded network depends on the alkyl chain length. We find that the anisotropy of the excitation decays by both thermal diffusion from excited OD groups to nonexcited molecules and reorientational motion. The reorientation is described well by a model employing two relaxation times that increase linearly with increasing alcohol size. The short reorientation time is assigned to the partial reorientation of molecules within the alcohol cluster, while the long reorientation times can be attributed to breaking and reforming of hydrogen bonds.

Vibrational excitation induced proton transfer in hydrated Nafion membranes

We study the energy relaxation and structural relaxation dynamics of hydrated protons in Nafion membranes at different hydration levels using femtosecond infrared transient absorption spectroscopy. At low hydration levels we observe that the excitation of the proton vibration of an Eigen-like proton hydration structure leads to a structural relaxation process in which the Eigen-like structure evolves to a Zundel-like proton hydration structure. This reorganization leads to a transfer of the proton charge and closely follows the mechanism of infrared-induced adiabatic proton transfer that has been proposed by S. Hammes-Schiffer, J. T. Hynes, and others. At high hydration levels, the spectral dynamics are dominated by vibrational energy relaxation and subsequent cooling of the proton hydration structures and the surrounding water molecules. Using a kinetic analysis of the transient spectral data, we determine the rates of proton transfer, vibrational energy relaxation, and cooling as a function of hydration level. We find that infrared-induced proton transfer occurs at all hydration levels but becomes less observable at high hydration levels due to the increasingly dominant influence of the vibrational energy relaxation.

Energy relaxation dynamics of the hydration complex of hydroxide

We use polarization-resolved mid-infrared pump-probe spectroscopy to study the dynamics of the hydration shells of hydroxide ions (OH(-)). We excite the OH stretch vibrations of H(2)O molecules solvating the OH(-) ion and observe that this excitation decays with a relaxation time constant T(1) of 200 fs. This relaxation is followed by a thermalization process that becomes slower with increasing concentration of OH(-). The prethermalized state is observed to be anisotropic, showing that the energy of the excited OH stretch vibrations is dissipated within the hydration complex. The anisotropy of the prethermalized state decays both as a result of the reorientation of the OH(-) hydration complex and heat diffusion from the excited complexes to unexcited complexes. Modeling the anisotropy data at different concentrations allows for an accurate estimate of the number of water molecules in the hydration shell of OH(-), the reorientation dynamics of the OH(-) hydration complex, and the molecular-scale heat diffusivity.

Ultrafast energy migration pathways in self-assembled phospholipids interacting with confined water

Phospholipids self-assembled into reverse micelles in benzene are introduced as a new model system to study elementary processes relevant for energy transport in hydrated biological membranes. Femtosecond vibrational spectroscopy gives insight into the dynamics of the antisymmetric phosphate stretching vibration ν(AS)(PO(2))(-), a sensitive probe of local phosphate-water interactions and energy transport. The decay of the ν(AS)(PO(2))(-) mode with a 300-fs lifetime transfers excess energy to a subgroup of phospholipid low-frequency modes, followed by redistribution among phospholipid vibrations within a few picoseconds. The latter relaxation is accelerated by adding a confined water pool, an efficient heat sink in which the excess energy induces weakening or breaking of water-water and water-phospholipid hydrogen bonds. In parallel to vibrational relaxation, resonant energy transfer between ν(AS)(PO(2))(-) oscillators delocalizes the initial excitation.

Measuring properties of interfacial and bulk water regions in a reverse micelle with IR spectroscopy: a volumetric analysis of the inhomogeneously broadened OH band

The water OH stretching band (3000-3600 cm(-1)) was analyzed for absorption contributions from the respective bulk and interfacial water regions of a reverse micelle. This analysis was performed by correlating volume changes of these regions to changes in the OH band absorption as the micelle radius grows. The volumetric analysis is based on the well established expanding core-shell model for AOT reverse micelles and yields the dimensions of the water regions and their individual spectral responses in the OH band. The interfacial shell thickness was determined to be 0.45 nm for AOT reverse micelles in i-octane. It was found that each water region absorbs at most frequencies in the OH band; however, absorption on the red side of the OH band is dominated by bulk water, while absorption on the blue side is dominated by interfacial water. The bulk spectral response was found to be more similar to pure water, while the interfacial spectrum is strongly blue-shifted reflecting the weaker hydrogen bonding in this region. AOT reverse micelles with radii in the range 2-4 nm conformed well to the volumetric model. However, it was found that determination of the bulk water spectral response is particularly sensitive to uncertainty in the micelle radius.

Geometry and nanolength scales versus interface interactions: water dynamics in AOT lamellar structures and reverse micelles

To determine the relative importance of the confining geometry and nanoscopic length scale versus water/interface interactions, the dynamic interactions between water and interfaces are studied with ultrafast infrared spectroscopy. Aerosol OT (AOT) is a surfactant that can form two-dimensional lamellar structures with known water layer thickness as well as well-defined monodispersed spherical reverse micelles of known water nanopool diameter. Lamellar structures and reverse micelles are compared based on two criteria: surface-to-surface dimensions to study the effect of confining length scales, and water-to-surfactant ratio to study water/interface interactions. We show that the water-to-surfactant ratio is the dominant factor governing the nature of water interacting with an interface, not the characteristic nanoscopic distance. The detailed structure of the interface and the specific interactions between water and the interface also play a critical role in the fraction of water molecules influenced by the surface. A two-component model in which water is separated into bulk-like water in the center of the lamellar structure or reverse micelle and interfacial water is used to quantitatively extract the interfacial dynamics. A greater number of perturbed water molecules are present in the lamellar structures as compared to the reverse micelles due to the larger surface area per AOT molecule and the greater penetration of water molecules past the sulfonate head groups in the lamellar structures.

Ultrafast dynamics in reverse micelles

Recent advances in ultrafast laser technology have spurred investigations of microheterogeneous solutions. In particular, researchers have explored details of reverse micelles (RMs), which present isolated droplets of polar solvent sequestered from a continuous nonpolar phase by a surfactant layer. This review explores recent studies utilizing a variety of ultrafast laser techniques to uncover details about structure and dynamics in various RMs. Using ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy, researchers have probed hydrogen-bond dynamics and vibrational energy relaxation in RMs. These studies have developed our understanding of reverse micellar structure, identifying varying water environments in the RMs. In a plethora of experiments employing probe molecules, researchers have explored the confined environment presented by RMs and their impact on a range of chemical reactions. These studies have shown that confinement, rather than the specific interactions with surfactants, is an important factor determining the impact of the reverse micellar environment on the chemistry.

Confinement or the nature of the interface? Dynamics of nanoscopic water

The dynamics of water confined in two different types of reverse micelles are studied using ultrafast infrared pump-probe spectroscopy of the hydroxyl OD stretch of HOD in H2O. Reverse micelles of the surfactant Aerosol-OT (ionic head group) in isooctane and the surfactant Igepal CO 520 (nonionic head group) in 50/50 wt % cyclohexane/hexane are prepared to have the same diameter water nanopools. Measurements of the IR spectra and vibrational lifetimes show that the identity of the surfactant head groups affects the local environment experienced by the water molecules inside the reverse micelles. The orientational dynamics (time-dependent anisotropy), which is a measure of the hydrogen bond network rearrangement, are very similar for the confined water in the two types of reverse micelles. The results demonstrate that confinement by an interface to form a nanoscopic water pool is a primary factor governing the dynamics of nanoscopic water rather than the presence of charged groups at the interface.

Ultrafast anisotropy dynamics of water molecules dissolved in acetonitrile

Infrared pump-probe experiments are performed on isolated H(2)O molecules diluted in acetonitrile in the spectral region of the OH stretching vibration. The large separation between water molecules excludes intermolecular interactions, while acetonitrile as a solvent provides substantial hydrogen bonding. Intramolecular coupling between symmetric and asymmetric modes results in the anisotropy decay to the frequency-dependent values of approximately 0-0.2 with a 0.2 ps time constant. The experimental data are consistent with a theoretical model that includes intramolecular coupling, anharmonicity, and environmental fluctuations. Our results demonstrate that intramolecular processes are essential for the H(2)O stretching mode relaxation and therefore can compete with the intermolecular energy transfer in bulk water.

Bulk Melting of Ice at the Limit of Superheating

The ice-water phase transition after an ultrafast temperature jump is studied in HDO:D2O (15 M) ice with use of 2-color IR spectroscopy. The OH-stretching vibration is applied for rapid heating of the sample and for fast and sensitive probing of local temperature and structure. For energy depositions beyond the limit of superheating (330 +/- 10 K) partial melting in two steps is observed and assigned to (i) catastrophic melting within the thermalization time of the excited ice lattice of 5 +/- 2 ps and (ii) secondary melting with a time constant of 33 +/- 5 ps that is assigned to interfacial melting at the generated phase boundaries. The latter process is found to consume energy amounts in agreement with the latent heat of melting and is accompanied by an accelerated temperature and pressure decrease of the residual ice component.

Ultrafast dynamics of water in cationic micelles

The effect of confinement on the dynamical properties of liquid water is investigated for water enclosed in cationic reverse micelles. The authors performed mid-infrared ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy on the OH-stretch vibration of isotopically diluted HDO in D(2)O in cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) reverse micelles of various sizes. The authors observe that the surfactant counterions are inhomogeneously distributed throughout the reverse micelle, and that regions of extreme salinity occur near the interfacial Stern layer. The authors find that the water molecules in the core of the micelles show similar orientational dynamics as bulk water, and that water molecules in the counterion-rich interfacial region are much less mobile. An explicit comparison is made with the dynamics of water confined in anionic sodium bis(2-ethythexyl) sulfosuccinate (AOT) reverse micelles. The authors find that interfacial water in cationic CTAB reverse micelles has a higher orientational mobility than water in anionic AOT reverse micelles.

Inhomogeneous dynamics in confined water nanodroplets

The effect of confinement on the dynamical properties of liquid water was studied by mid-infrared ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy on HDO:D2O in reverse micelles. By preparing water-containing reverse micelles of different well defined sizes, we varied the degree of geometric confinement in water nanodroplets with radii ranging from 0.2 to 4.5 nm. We find that water molecules located near the interface confining the droplet exhibit slower vibrational energy relaxation and have a different spectral absorption than those located in the droplet core. As a result, we can measure the orientational dynamics of these different types of water with high selectivity. We observe that the water molecules in the core show similar orientational dynamics as bulk water and that the water layer solvating the interface is highly immobile.

Influence of microwave radiation on the growth of gold nanoparticles and microporous zincophosphates in a reverse micellar system

The water core of reverse micelles has been extensively used as the site for synthesis of a variety of materials. However, water-in-oil reverse micelles have a limited range of temperatures over which they are stable as a single phase. Directing heat to the water cores, the usual site of synthesis without heating the bulk provides added opportunities for synthesis. Microwave radiation is a method for superheating the water cores. In this study, we use an H2O-sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate (AOT)-heptane reverse micelle system for the synthesis of Au particles by hydrazine reduction of HAuCl4 in the presence and absence of microwave radiation. The duration of the microwave radiation was limited to a 2-min duration at a power of 300 W, thereby ensuring that the reverse micelle phase is maintained during the synthesis. At all hydrazine concentrations studied (0.5-2 M), the presence of microwave radiation led to an increase in the particle size of Au. The second system examined was the growth of microporous zincophosphate-X (ZnPO-X, an analogue of the faujasite structure) synthesized from H2O-dioctyldimethylammonium chloride (DODMAC)-heptane reverse micelle system. Microwave radiation was applied for 1 min at 150 W at various stages of the nucleation and growth process, and did not disrupt the reverse micelle system. Product analysis after 48 h of reaction showed that the 1-min microwave pulse, if applied during the nucleation stage (the first 4 h), promoted the formation of NaZnPO4.H2O over ZnPO-X. The effect of the microwave pulse at the growth stage was to promote the formation of ZnPO-X. Absorption of the microwave radiation by the water core and surrounding polar surfactant molecules leads to a rapid rise in local temperature (predicted to be approximately 150 degrees C/min for the AOT system), increasing the rates of intramicellar reactions.

Thermal relaxation mechanism and role of chemical functionalization in fullerene solutions

Using molecular-dynamics simulations we investigate thermal relaxation of C60 and C84 molecules suspended in octane liquid. Pristine fullerenes exhibit relatively slow relaxation due to weak thermal coupling with the liquid. A comparison of the interfacial transport characteristics obtained from relaxation simulations with those obtained from equilibrium simulations and fluctuation-dissipation theorem analysis demonstrates that the relaxation process involves two main steps: (i) energy flow from high- to low-frequency modes within the fullerene, and (ii) energy flow from low-frequency fullerene modes to the liquid. Functionalization of fullerenes with alkene chains leads to significant reduction of the thermal relaxation time. The relaxation time of functionalized fullerenes becomes independent from the functionalizing chain length beyond approximately 10 carbon segments; this can be understood in terms of thermal conductivity along the chain and heat transfer between the chain and the solvent.

Temperature dependence of hydrogen bonding and freezing behavior of water in reverse micelles

The mid-infrared spectra of H2O and D2O confined in Aerosol OT (AOT) reverse micelles at various water/surfactant molar ratios (wo) were measured. Previous descriptions of reverse micellar (RM) water have identified three different hydrogen bonding populations in the water pool. (Onori, G.; Santucci, A. J. Phys. Chem. 1993, 97, 5430-5434.) Fitting of the O-H and O-D stretching vibrational modes to Gaussian components corresponding to these three H-bonding populations was used to determine the temperature dependence of the hydrogen bonding populations and to observe the freezing behavior of the encapsulated water pool. The H-bond network behavior of the RM water pool exhibits a strong dependence on wo and does not approximate that of bulk water until wo = 40. The freezing temperature of RM water was wo-independent. The infrared spectra of frozen RM samples has also led us to suggest a mechanism for the low-temperature phase transition behavior of AOT reverse micelles, a subject of interest for cryoenzymology and low-temperature structural biology.

Energy Transfer in Single Hydrogen-Bonded Water Molecules

We study the structure and dynamics of hydrogen-bonded complexes of H2O/HDO and acetone dissolved in carbon tetrachloride by probing the response of the O-H stretching vibrations with linear mid-infrared spectroscopy and femtosecond mid-infrared pump-probe spectroscopy. We find that the hydrogen bonds in these complexes break and reform with a characteristic time scale of approximately 1 ps. These hydrogen-bond dynamics are observed to play an important role in the equilibration of vibrational energy over the two O-H groups of the H2O molecule. For both H2O and HDO, the O-H stretching vibrational excitation relaxes with a time constant of 6.3+/-0.3 ps, and the molecular reorientation has a time constant of 6+/-1 ps.

Anomalous slowing down of the vibrational relaxation of liquid water upon nanoscale confinement

We study the vibrational dynamics of nanodroplets of liquid water with femtosecond two-color midinfrared pump-probe spectroscopy. For the smallest nanodroplet, containing 10-15 water molecules, the lifetime T1 of the O-H stretch vibrations is equal to 0.85+/-0.1 ps, which is more than 3 times as long as in bulk liquid water. We find that the truncation of the hydrogen-bond network of water leads to a dramatic change of the relaxation mechanism.

Surfactant Charge Effects on the Location, Vibrational Spectra, and Relaxation Dynamics of Cyanoferrates in Reverse Micelles

Ultrafast infrared spectroscopy has been used to measure vibrational energy relaxation (VER) and reorientation (Tr) times for the high frequency CN stretches of potassium ferrocyanide and ferricyanide and the NO stretch of sodium nitroprusside (SNP) in several reverse micelle (RM) systems using cationic, anionic, and nonionic surfactants. The confinement effects on anion vibrational spectra and dynamics in aqueous RMs depend on the charge of the surfactant that is used to form the RMs. Spectra and VER dynamics of ferrocyanide are not significantly altered in the limited number of RMs in which it could be solubilized. The static spectra of ferricyanide suggest an environment that is most bulklike in anionic RMs and least bulklike in cationic RMs. The dynamics of ferricyanide are slower in cationic RMs and indistinguishable from the bulk in nonionic RMs. The VER dynamics and static spectra of SNP are indistinguishable from the bulk in anionic RMs, but much slower in cationic RMs. This suggests a strong surfactant-solute repulsion in the former and an attraction in the latter. Broad static spectra and probe frequency dependent dynamics are seen for SNP in nonionic RMs, indicating an inhomogeneous distribution of environments. Similar measurements were carried out for SNP in mixtures of water and a model compound containing only the hydrophilic portion of the nonionic surfactants in which RMs are not formed. The results closely resemble those observed for SNP in nonionic RMs and provide evidence that in the latter water penetrates the interface and hydrates the ethylene oxide groups before forming a water pool. The results are consistent with the explanation that Coulombic forces determine the anion location. The anions are repelled to the interior of the water pool, which has a bulklike environment in anionic RMs, and are attracted to the interface in cationic RMs, resulting in a strong interaction with the surfactant. The solute location in the nonionic RMs depends on the hydrophilic nature of the probe, with ferrocyanide and ferricyanide being more hydrophilic than SNP. These results and the dependence on surfactant charge are similar to those reported for azide.

Vibrational Energy Transfer Across a Reverse Micelle Surfactant Layer

In a suspension of reverse micelles, in which the surfactant sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate (AOT) separates a water nanodroplet from a bulk nonpolar CCl4 phase, ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy was used to study vibrational energy transfer from the nanodroplet through the AOT interfacial monolayer to the surrounding CCl4. Most of the vibrational energy from the nanodroplet was transferred to the polar AOT head group within 1.8 picoseconds and then out to the CCl4 within 10 picoseconds. Vibrational energy pumped directly into the AOT tail resulted in a slower 20- to 40-picosecond transfer of energy to the CCl4.