Recent work has demonstrated that significant heterogeneity exists in water interfaces with organic solvents, a feature that can be incredibly sensitive to the nature of the organic solvent and presence of surface active solutes. In the ternary system consisting of water/hexane/tri-butyl-phosphate prior work has demonstrated that interfacially mediated water protrusions are the primary mechanism by which water gets transferred into the organic phase. Herein we investigate the temperature dependence of protrusion formation, including how the temperature affects surfactant adsorption, hydrogen bond structure, protrusion formation and water extraction. A new geometric measure-theory based algorithm is defined that quantifies these characteristics and reveals the balance of forces (thermodynamic vs. entropic) that contribute to protrusion formation. This work is contrasted to other water/organic systems so as to elucidate the generality of water protrusion formation and it underlying mechanistic features.

On the temperature dependence of interfacial structure in liquid-liquid interface

2019 Fall National Meeting

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