Adsorption, dissolution, and growth at mineral surfaces can strongly influence interfacial reactivity and therefore have important implications for environmental and energy issues. Elucidating the molecular-scale mechanisms of mineral-water and mineral-air interfacial reactions contributes to a more thorough understanding of geochemical processes and is essential to radically improve current predictive models. This presentation will review insights gained in this area from our work with non-linear optical spectroscopy and scanning probe microscopy, where sum frequency generation spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy were employed as the primary techniques, respectively. Examples will include the adsorption of diamine molecules at silica surfaces as well as dissolution and heteroepitaxial growth at carbonate mineral-water interfaces in response to solution chemistry perturbations.

Molecular-scale investigation of mineral surfaces: From non-linear optical spectroscopy to scanning probe microscopy

245th National Meeting (2013)

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