Dr. Robert Walker
Ohio University’s Chemistry & Biochemistry Colloquium Series presents Dr. Robert Walker on Finding Surprises in Hard to See Places: Adsorption, Solvation and Accumulation at Buried Liquid Interfaces on Monday, Sept. 24, from 4:10 to 5 p.m. in Clippinger 194.
Walker is Professor of Chemistry and Materials Science Program Director at Montana State University.
Abstract: Solute adsorption to buried liquid interfaces can be difficult to predict a priori. Even simple questions about a solute’s tendency to adsorb to these interfaces requires knowing about the strength of solute-substrate, solvent-substrate, and solute-solvent energetics. Furthermore, cooperative interactions between adsorbates can lead to changes in interfacial composition that are not predicted based on simple monomer-substrate considerations. Recent studies in our laboratory have used linear and nonlinear optical techniques to examine molecular structure, organization, and accumulation at buried liquid interfaces. For example, second harmonic generation and time resolved fluorescence emission spectroscopy have identified a distinctly nonpolar environment at the boundary between methanol and silica. Such a result can not be predicted simply by extrapolating from the bulk material properties of adjacent phases. The literature contains several competing explanations that can be used to rationalize this finding. Coupling results from surface specific vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy with recent predictions from classical molecular dynamics simulations has begun to provide insight into how interfacial hydrogen bonding and solvent structure can lead to unusual and unexpected chemistry observed across solid/liquid interfaces.
The host is Dr. Katherine Cimatu, Assistant Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry at Ohio University.
Colloquia are Mondays from 4:10 to 5 p.m. in Clippinger 194.
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