Engineering topics
Gaigeot, Marie-Pierre
Publications and source records attributed to Gaigeot, Marie-Pierre.
Oxide– and Silicate–Water Interfaces and Their Roles in Technology and the Environment
Interfacial reactions drive all elemental cycling on Earth and play pivotal roles in human activities such as agriculture, water purification, energy production and storage, environmental contaminant remediation, and nuclear waste repository management. The onset of the 21st century marked the beginning of a more detailed understanding of mineral aqueous interfaces enabled by advances in techniques that use tunable high-flux focused ultrafast laser and X-ray sources to provide near-atomic measurement resolution, as well as by nanofabrication approaches that enable transmission electron microscopy in a liquid cell. This leap into atomic- and nanometer-scale measurements has uncovered scale-dependent phenomena whose reaction thermodynamics, kinetics, and pathways deviate from previous observations made on larger systems. A second key advance is new experimental evidence for what scientists hypothesized but could not test previously, namely, interfacial chemical reactions are frequently driven by “anomalies” or “non-idealities” such as defects, nanoconfinement, and other nontypical chemical structures. Third, progress in computational chemistry has yielded new insights that allow a move beyond simple schematics, leading to a molecular model of these complex interfaces. In combination with surface-sensitive measurements, we have gained knowledge of the interfacial structure and dynamics, including the underlying solid surface and the immediately adjacent water and aqueous ions, enabling a better definition of what constitutes the oxide– and silicate–water interfaces. This critical review discusses how science progresses from understanding ideal solid–water interfaces to more realistic systems, focusing on accomplishments in the last 20 years and identifying challenges and future opportunities for the community to address. Further, we anticipate that the next 20 years will focus on understanding and predicting dynamic transient and reactive structures over greater spatial and temporal ranges as well as systems of greater structural and chemical complexity. Closer collaborations of theoretical and experimental experts across disciplines will continue to be critical to achieving this great aspiration.
Stripping away ion hydration shells in electrical double-layer formation: Water networks matter
Significance For centuries the double layer at the solid/electrolyte interface has been a central concept in electrochemistry. Today, it is still crucial for virtually all renewable energy storage and conversion technologies. Here, the double-layer formation is probed by THz spectroscopy with ultrabright synchrotron light as a source. Our results capture the molecular details of double-layer formation at positively/negatively charged Au electrodes for an NaCl electrolyte. We reveal a contrasting response applying positive versus negative bias, which is dictated by the interfacial water network and rationalized by accompanying molecular dynamics simulations and electronic-structure calculations. While Na + is directly attracted toward the negatively charged electrode, stripping of the Cl − hydration shell is observed only at larger potential values.
Ions Tune Interfacial Water Structure and Modulate Hydrophobic Interactions at Silica Surfaces
The structure and ultrafast dynamics of the electric double layer (EDL) are central to chemical reactivity and physical properties at solid/aqueous interfaces. While the Gouy–Chapman–Stern model is widely used to describe EDLs, it is solely based on the macroscopic electrostatic attraction of electrolytes for the charged surfaces. Structure and dynamics in the Stern layer are, however, more complex because of competing effects due to the localized surface charge distribution, surface–solvent–ion correlations, and the interfacial hydrogen bonding environment. Here, we report combined time-resolved vibrational sum frequency generation (TR-vSFG) spectroscopy with ab initio DFT-based molecular dynamics simulations (AIMD/DFT-MD) to get direct access to the molecular-level understanding of how ions change the structure and dynamics of the EDL. We show that innersphere adsorbed ions tune the hydrophobicity of the silica–aqueous interface by shifting the structural makeup in the Stern layer from dominant water–surface interactions to water–water interactions. This drives an initially inhomogeneous interfacial water coordination landscape observed at the neat interface toward a homogeneous, highly interconnected in-plane 2D hydrogen bonding (2D-HB) network at the ionic interface, reminiscent of the canonical, hydrophobic air–water interface. This ion-induced transformation results in a characteristic decrease of the vibrational lifetime (T 1 ) of excited interfacial O–H stretching modes from T 1 ~ 600 fs to T 1 ~ 250 fs. Hence, we propose that the T 1 determined by TR-vSFG in combination with DFT-MD simulations can be widely used for a quantitative spectroscopic probe of the ion kosmotropic/chaotropic effect at aqueous interfaces as well as of the ion-induced surface hydrophobicity.
Controlling internal degrees: general discussion
Temperature is a very important concept in ion spectroscopy and its control has seen tremendous advances in recent years. Cryogenic ion traps are now found in many experiments and serve as thermostats, reaction vessels, clustering sources and spectroscopic sample chambers. The control over internal degrees of freedom provides routes to forming ions that are relevant at cryogenic temperatures such as in the interstellar medium and to control and lock-in conformations. It also provides a condensing environment and allows weakly bound clusters to be formed, which in turn provides new routes to action spectroscopy. This session will discuss the most recent developments in cryogenic spectroscopy and the research it enables and how new theoretical methods allow the prediction of experimental spectra as a function of temperature. The main discussion topics will cover: the best cooling methods; how temperature can be used to form exotic clusters and weakly interacting systems; and the possibilities for probing conformational locking and metastable structures.
Pushing resolution in frequency and time: general discussion
One of the most important aspects of spectroscopy in general is resolution: the higher it is, the more information can be attained. At one end, spectral resolution provides geometric and electronic structural information and insights into weak interactions such as hydrogen bonds. At the other end, temporal resolution provides insight into geometric and electronic structural dynamics. The aim of this session is to provide a forum to discuss the state of the art in terms of resolution in general and how recent advances in light sources and ion mass spectroscopy can be used to study unexplored phenomena and interactions. Theoretical developments also have a key role in this area, particularly in relation to time-resolved measurements, since theoretical predictions are of key importance for providing molecular-insight into the observed experimental dynamics. The key discussion points will revolve around how experiment and theory can best combine to achieve the deepest insight, both in terms of structure and dynamics; and how new light sources may open new horizons.
Going large(r): General Discussion
With the introduction of new ion sources and advanced mass-spectrometric techniques coupled to spectroscopy, ever larger complexes are being probed. This increase in size is coupled with an increase in complexity requiring new methodologies (both experimental and theoretical) but also providing new opportunities. This session will primarily focus on the application of ion spectroscopy of non-covalent interactions in clusters and biological systems. These include solvent clusters, secondary and tertiary structure of proteins, and weakly-bound molecular clusters. Topics covered will include: structural probes for weak interactions; advances in action spectroscopy; and conformationally selective spectroscopy. A key discussion point will concern the marriage of mass-spectrometery with optical spectroscopy. The interpretation of experimental data obtained for these larger systems demands concomitant developments in theoretical methods, and the session will provide an opportunity for comparative discussions of new theoretical approaches in this field.