Specific cation effects at aqueous solution-vapor interfaces: Surfactant-like behavior of Li+ revealed by experiments and simulations.

It is now well established by numerous experimental and computational studies that the adsorption propensities of inorganic anions conform to the Hofmeister series. The adsorption propensities of inorganic cations, such as the alkali metal cations, have received relatively little attention. Here we use a combination of liquid-jet X-ray photoelectron experiments and molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the behavior of K+ and Li+ ions near the interfaces of their aqueous solutions with halide ions. Both the experiments and the simulations show that Li+ adsorbs to the aqueous solution-vapor interface, while K+ does not. Thus, we provide experimental validation of the "surfactant-like" behavior of Li+ predicted by previous simulation studies. Furthermore, we use our simulations to trace the difference in the adsorption of K+ and Li+ ions to a difference in the resilience of their hydration shells.

Simulated photoelectron intensities at the aqueous solution-air interface for flat and cylindrical (microjet) geometries.

Ion spatial distributions at the aqueous-air/vacuum interface are accessible by energy-dependent X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Here we quantify the difference between a flat surface and a cylindrical microjet in terms of the energy-dependent information depth of the XPS experiment and in terms of the simulated photoelectron intensities using solutions of pure water and of 1 mol L-1 NaI as examples.

Solvent-Shared Ion Pairs at the Air-Solution Interface of Magnesium Chloride and Sulfate Solutions Revealed by Sum Frequency Spectroscopy and Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

The ion distribution and ion pairing properties of Mg2+, SO42-, NO3-, and Cl- in the interfacial region of MgSO4, Mg(NO3)2, and MgCl2 solutions were investigated using vibrational sum frequency generation (VSFG) spectroscopy and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. An electric field reversal relative to Mg(NO3)2 and MgCl2 solutions is observed at the interface of a MgSO4 solution. We show that, although magnesium cations are expected to have preference for bulk solvation, solvent-shared ion pairs (SIPs) exist in the interfacial region in which Mg2+ cations are closer to the solution surface than sulfate anions. While interfacial SIPs are few, they dominate the electric field effect observed. Thus, SIPs play a significant role in determining the electric field direction and magnitude at the air-aqueous interface. In addition to impact on the fundamental understanding of aqueous surfaces and interfacial ion-ion interactions, these findings have implications for atmospheric aerosol chemistry and thundercloud electrification.

Quantitative interpretation of molecular dynamics simulations for X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of aqueous solutions.

Over the past decade, energy-dependent ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) has emerged as a powerful analytical probe of the ion spatial distributions at the vapor (vacuum)-aqueous electrolyteinterface. These experiments are often paired with complementary molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in an attempt to provide a complete description of the liquidinterface. There is, however, no systematic protocol that permits a straightforward comparison of the two sets of results. XPS is an integrated technique that averages signals from multiple layers in a solution even at the lowest photoelectron kinetic energies routinely employed, whereas MD simulations provide a microscopic layer-by-layer description of the solution composition near the interface. Here, we use the National Institute of Standards and Technology database for the Simulation of Electron Spectra for Surface Analysis (SESSA) to quantitatively interpret atom-density profiles from MD simulations for XPS signal intensities using sodium and potassium iodide solutions as examples. We show that electron inelastic mean free paths calculated from a semi-empirical formula depend strongly on solution composition, varying by up to 30% between pure water and concentrated NaI. The XPS signal thus arises from different information depths in different solutions for a fixed photoelectron kinetic energy. XPS signal intensities are calculated using SESSA as a function of photoelectron kinetic energy (probe depth) and compared with a widely employed ad hoc method. SESSA simulations illustrate the importance of accounting for elastic-scattering events at low photoelectron kinetic energies (<300 eV) where the ad hoc method systematically underestimates the preferential enhancement of anions over cations. Finally, some technical aspects of applying SESSA to liquidinterfaces are discussed.

Specific Anion Effects on Na+ Adsorption at the Aqueous Solution-Air Interface: MD Simulations, SESSA Calculations, and Photoelectron Spectroscopy Experiments.

Specific ion effects of the large halide anions have been shown to moderate anion adsorption to the air-water interface (AWI), but little quantitative attention has been paid to the behavior of alkali cations. Here we investigate the concentration and local distribution of sodium (Na+) at the AWI in dilute (<1 M) aqueous solutions of NaCl, NaBr, and NaI using a combination of molecular dynamics (MD) and SESSA simulations, and liquid jet ambient pressure photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. We use SESSA to simulate Na 2p photoelectron intensities on the basis of the atom density profiles obtained from MD simulations, and we compare the simulation results with photoelectron spectroscopy experiments to evaluate the performance of a nonpolarizable force field model versus that of an induced dipole polarizable one. Our results show that the nonpolarizable force model developed by Horinek and co-workers (Chem. Phys. Lett. 2009, 479, 173-183) accurately predicts the local concentration and distribution of Na+ near the AWI for all three electrolytes, whereas the polarizable model does not. To our knowledge, this is the first interface-specific spectroscopic validation of a MD force field. The molecular origins of the unique Na+ distributions for the three electrolytes are analyzed on the basis of electrostatic arguments, and shown to arise from an indirect anion effect wherein the identity of the anion affects the strength of the attractive Na+-H2O electrostatic interaction. Finally, we use the photoelectron spectroscopy results to constrain the range of inelastic mean free paths (IMFPs) for the three electrolyte solutions used in the SESSA simulations that are able to reproduce the experimental intensities. Our results suggest that earlier estimates of IMFPs for aqueous solutions are likely too high.