The adsorption of organic molecules on mineral surfaces has been linked to the reactivity of these species in the atmosphere and ocean.  The mineral surfaces serve to select molecules, concentrate them, and orient their chemical functional groups.  The adsorbate surface-bound structure then serves as a basis for understanding subsequent reactivity.  Nonlinear vibrational spectroscopy is an inherently surface-specific technique and is ideally suited to studying the structure of molecules in their adsorbed state.  We will provide a demonstration of our structure elucidation techniques for environmentally-relevant species at the silica-water interface.  Our recent effort has been to perform interferometric measurements to resolve the absolute polarity of bonds and thereby understand specific sub-molecular mineral-organic interactions.

Phase-resolved nonlinear vibrational spectroscopy study of organic adsorption at the silica-water interface

244th National Meeting (2012)

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