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Chen Z, Li Z, Xie J, Zhang P, Tong T, Wang Y, Hu J, Wörner HJ, Tian SX. Direct Observation of Anionic Yields from the Liquid-Vapor Interface by Electron Irradiation. J Phys Chem Lett 2024; 15:5607-5611. [PMID: 38758196 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.4c00521] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/18/2024]
Abstract
Dissociative electron attachment (DEA) is widely believed to play a high-profile role in ionizing radiation damages of bioorganic molecules, and its fundamentals are mainly learned from the gas-phase studies. However, the DEA process in aqueous solution is still in debate. Here we provide experimental evidence about the DEA processes of liquid methanol by using electron-impact-time-delayed mass spectrometry. In contrast to the gas- and solid-phase DEAs, methoxide ion CH3O- is the predominant product from the liquid interface. Furthermore, this anion can be produced with both the primary low-energy electrons and the inelastically scattered and secondary low-energy electrons. On the contrary, the primary low-energy electrons in the liquid bulk are more likely to be solvated, rather than directly participating in the DEA process. Our study provides new insights into radiation chemistry, particularly of bioorganic relevance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ziwei Chen
- Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
| | - Ziyuan Li
- Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
| | - Jingchen Xie
- Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
| | - Pengju Zhang
- Laboratory for Physical Chemistry, ETH Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 2, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Tiantian Tong
- Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
| | - Yue Wang
- Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
| | - Jie Hu
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
| | - Hans Jakob Wörner
- Laboratory for Physical Chemistry, ETH Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 2, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Shan Xi Tian
- Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
- Hefei National Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230088, China
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2
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Yamamoto YI, Suzuki T. Distortion Correction of Low-Energy Photoelectron Spectra of Liquids Using Spectroscopic Data for Solvated Electrons. J Phys Chem A 2023; 127:2440-2452. [PMID: 36917090 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.2c08046] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/16/2023]
Abstract
Time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (TRPES) enables real-time observation of ultrafast electronic dynamics in solutions. When extreme ultraviolet (EUV) probe pulses are employed, they can ionize solutes from all electronic states involved in the dynamics. However, EUV pulses also produce a strong ionization signal from a solvent that is typically 6 orders of magnitude greater than the pump-probe photoelectron signal of solutes. Alternatively, UV probe pulses enable highly sensitive and selective observation of photoexcited solutes because typical solvents such as water are transparent to UV radiation. An obstacle in such UV-TRPES measurements is spectral distortion caused by electron scattering and a yet to be identified mechanism in liquids. We have previously proposed the spectral retrieval (SR) method as an a posteriori approach to removing the distortion and overcoming this difficulty in UV-TRPES; however, its accuracy has not yet been verified by comparison with EUV-TRPES results. In the present study, we perform EUV-TRPES for charge transfer reactions in water, methanol, and ethanol, and verify SR analysis of UV-TRPES. We also estimate a previously undetermined energy-dependent intensity factor and expand the basis sets for SR analysis. The refined SR method is employed for reanalyzing the UV-TRPES data for the formation and relaxation dynamics of solvated electrons in various systems. The electron binding energy distributions for solvated electrons in liquid water, methanol, and ethanol are confirmed to be Gaussian centered at 3.78, 3.39, and 3.25 eV, respectively, in agreement with Nishitani et al. [ Sci. Adv. 2019, 5(8), eaaw6896]. An effective energy gap between the conduction band and the vacuum level at the gas-liquid interface is estimated to be 0.2 eV for liquid water and 0.1 eV for methanol and ethanol.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yo-Ichi Yamamoto
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwakecho, Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
| | - Toshinori Suzuki
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwakecho, Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
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3
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Yamamoto YI, Suzuki YI, Suzuki T. Charge Transfer Reactions from I - to Polar Protic Solvents Studied Using Ultrafast Extreme Ultraviolet Photoelectron Spectroscopy. J Phys Chem Lett 2023; 14:1052-1058. [PMID: 36693229 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c03849] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Charge transfer reactions from I- to solvent water, methanol, and ethanol were studied using extreme ultraviolet time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (EUV-TRPES). This technique eliminates spectral broadening, previously seen in UV-TRPES, caused by electron inelastic scattering in liquids, and enables clear observation of the temporal evolution of the spectral shape. The peak position, width, and intensity of the electron binding energy distribution indicate electron detachment and subsequent solvation and thermalization processes. Geminate recombination between detached electrons and iodine atoms is discussed using a diffusion equation and a global fitting analysis based on a kinetics model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yo-Ichi Yamamoto
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwakecho, Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto606-8502, Japan
| | - Yoshi-Ichi Suzuki
- School of Medical Technology, Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, 1757 Kanazawa, Tobetsucho, Ishikari, Hokkaido061-0293, Japan
| | - Toshinori Suzuki
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa-Oiwakecho, Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto606-8502, Japan
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4
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Abstract
Knowledge of the electronic structure of an aqueous solution is a prerequisite to understanding its chemical and biological reactivity and its response to light. One of the most direct ways of determining electronic structure is to use photoelectron spectroscopy to measure electron binding energies. Initially, photoelectron spectroscopy was restricted to the gas or solid phases due to the requirement for high vacuum to minimize inelastic scattering of the emitted electrons. The introduction of liquid-jets and their combination with intense X-ray sources at synchrotrons in the late 1990s expanded the scope of photoelectron spectroscopy to include liquids. Liquid-jet photoelectron spectroscopy is now an active research field involving a growing number of research groups. A limitation of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of aqueous solutions is the requirement to use solutes with reasonably high concentrations in order to obtain photoelectron spectra with adequate signal-to-noise after subtracting the spectrum of water. This has excluded most studies of organic molecules, which tend to be only weakly soluble. A solution to this problem is to use resonance-enhanced photoelectron spectroscopy with ultraviolet (UV) light pulses (hν ≲ 6 eV). However, the development of UV liquid-jet photoelectron spectroscopy has been hampered by a lack of quantitative understanding of inelastic scattering of low kinetic energy electrons (≲5 eV) and the impact on spectral lineshapes and positions.In this Account, we describe the key steps involved in the measurement of UV photoelectron spectra of aqueous solutions: photoionization/detachment, electron transport of low kinetic energy electrons through the conduction band, transmission through the water-vacuum interface, and transport through the spectrometer. We also explain the steps we take to record accurate UV photoelectron spectra of liquids with excellent signal-to-noise. We then describe how we have combined Monte Carlo simulations of electron scattering and spectral inversion with molecular dynamics simulations of depth profiles of organic solutes in aqueous solution to develop an efficient and widely applicable method for retrieving true UV photoelectron spectra of aqueous solutions. The huge potential of our experimental and spectral retrieval methods is illustrated using three examples. The first is a measurement of the vertical detachment energy of the green fluorescent protein chromophore, a sparingly soluble organic anion whose electronic structure underpins its fluorescence and photooxidation properties. The second is a measurement of the vertical ionization energy of liquid water, which has been the subject of discussion since the first X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurement in 1997. The third is a UV photoelectron spectroscopy study of the vertical ionization energy of aqueous phenol which demonstrates the possibility of retrieving true photoelectron spectra from measurements with contributions from components with different concentration profiles.
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Richardson V, Valença Ferreira de Aragão E, He X, Pirani F, Mancini L, Faginas-Lago N, Rosi M, Martini LM, Ascenzi D. Fragmentation of interstellar methanol by collisions with He˙ +: an experimental and computational study. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2022; 24:22437-22452. [PMID: 36102850 DOI: 10.1039/d2cp02458f] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Methanol is a key species in astrochemistry as its presence and reactivity provides a primary route to the synthesis of more complex interstellar organic molecules (iCOMs) that may eventually be incorporated in newly formed planetary systems. In the interstellar medium, methanol is formed by hydrogenation of CO ices on grains, and its fate upon collisions with interstellar ions should be accounted for to correctly model iCOM abundances in objects at various stages of stellar evolution. The absolute cross sections (CSs) and branching ratios (BRs) for the collisions of He˙+ ions with CH3OH are measured, as a function of the collision energy, using a Guided Ion Beam Mass Spectrometer (GIB-MS). Insights into the dissociative electron (charge) exchange mechanism have been obtained by computing the entrance and exit multidimensional Potential Energy Surfaces (PESs) and by modelling the non-adiabatic transitions using an improved Landau-Zener-Stückelberg approach. Notably, the dynamical treatment reproducing the experimental findings includes a strong orientation effect of the system formed by the small He˙+ ion and the highly polar CH3OH molecule, in the electric field gradient associated to the strongly anisotropic intermolecular interaction. This is a stereodynamical effect that plays a fundamental role in collision events occurring under a variety of conditions, with kinetic energy confined within intervals ranging from the sub-thermal to the hyper-thermal regime.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Emília Valença Ferreira de Aragão
- Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, Università degli studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italy.,Master-Tec s.r.l., Via Sicilia 41, Perugia, Italy
| | - Xiao He
- Department of Physics, University of Trento, Trento, Italy.
| | - Fernando Pirani
- Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, Università degli studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italy.,Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Università degli studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italy
| | - Luca Mancini
- Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, Università degli studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italy
| | - Noelia Faginas-Lago
- Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, Università degli studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italy.,Master-Tec s.r.l., Via Sicilia 41, Perugia, Italy
| | - Marzio Rosi
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Università degli studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italy
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Scholz M, Fortune WG, Tau O, Fielding HH. Accurate Vertical Ionization Energy of Water and Retrieval of True Ultraviolet Photoelectron Spectra of Aqueous Solutions. J Phys Chem Lett 2022; 13:6889-6895. [PMID: 35862937 PMCID: PMC9358712 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c01768] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2022] [Accepted: 07/14/2022] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
Ultraviolet (UV) photoelectron spectroscopy provides a direct way of measuring valence electronic structure; however, its application to aqueous solutions has been hampered by a lack of quantitative understanding of how inelastic scattering of low-energy (<5 eV) electrons in liquid water distorts the measured electron kinetic energy distributions. Here, we present an efficient and widely applicable method for retrieving true UV photoelectron spectra of aqueous solutions. Our method combines Monte Carlo simulations of electron scattering and spectral inversion, with molecular dynamics simulations of depth profiles of organic solutes in aqueous solution. Its application is demonstrated for both liquid water, and aqueous solutions of phenol and phenolate, which are ubiquitous biologically relevant structural motifs.
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Yamamoto YI, Ishiyama T, Morita A, Suzuki T. Exploration of Gas-Liquid Interfaces for Liquid Water and Methanol Using Extreme Ultraviolet Laser Photoemission Spectroscopy. J Phys Chem B 2021; 125:10514-10526. [PMID: 34494839 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.1c04765] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
We present a study using extreme UV (EUV) photoemission spectroscopy of the valence electronic structures of aqueous and methanol solutions using a 10 kHz EUV light source based on high-order harmonic generation and a magnetic bottle time-of-flight electron spectrometer. Two aspects of the observed spectra are highlighted in this study. One is variation of the vertical ionization energy (VIE) for liquids as a function of the solute concentration, which is closely related to surface dipoles at the gas-liquid interface. The experimental results show that the VIE of liquid water increases slightly with increasing concentrations of NaCl and NaI and decreases with NaOH. The VIE of liquid methanol was also found to change slightly with NaI. On the other hand, tetrabutylammonium iodide (TBAI) and butylamine (BA) clearly reduce the VIE for liquid water, which is attributed to the formation of an electric double layer (EDL) by segregated solutes at the gas-liquid interface. As evidence for this, when the pH of an aqueous BA solution is reduced to protonate BA, the VIE shift gradually decreases because the protonated BA moves into the bulk to suppress the influence of the EDL. We computed the surface potentials for these solutions using molecular dynamics simulations, and the results supported our interpretation of the experimental results. Another observation is the variation of the relative energy and shape of individual photoelectron bands for solvents, which is related to alteration of the structure and constituents of the first solvation shell of ionized solvent molecules. All of the solutes cause changes in the photoelectron spectra at high concentration, one of the most prominent of which is the degree of splitting of the 3a1 band for liquid water and the 7a' band for liquid methanol, which are sensitive to hydrogen bonding in the liquids. The 3a1 splitting decreases with the increasing concentration of NaI, NaCl, and NaOH, indicating that Na+ penetrates into the hydrogen-bonding network to coordinate to a nonbonding electron of a water molecule. On the other hand, TBAI and BA cause smaller changes in the 3a1 splitting. Full interpretation of these spectroscopic features awaits extensive quantum chemical calculations and is beyond the scope of this study. However, these results illustrate the strong potential of EUV laser photoemission spectroscopy of liquids for exploration of interfacial and solution chemistry.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yo-Ichi Yamamoto
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
| | - Tatsuya Ishiyama
- Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-8555, Japan
| | - Akihiro Morita
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan.,Elements Strategy Initiative for Catalysts and Batteries (ESICB), Kyoto University, Kyoto 615-8530, Japan
| | - Toshinori Suzuki
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
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8
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Thürmer S, Malerz S, Trinter F, Hergenhahn U, Lee C, Neumark DM, Meijer G, Winter B, Wilkinson I. Accurate vertical ionization energy and work function determinations of liquid water and aqueous solutions. Chem Sci 2021; 12:10558-10582. [PMID: 34447550 PMCID: PMC8356740 DOI: 10.1039/d1sc01908b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2021] [Accepted: 07/02/2021] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
The absolute-scale electronic energetics of liquid water and aqueous solutions, both in the bulk and at associated interfaces, are the central determiners of water-based chemistry. However, such information is generally experimentally inaccessible. Here we demonstrate that a refined implementation of the liquid microjet photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) technique can be adopted to address this. Implementing concepts from condensed matter physics, we establish novel all-liquid-phase vacuum and equilibrated solution–metal-electrode Fermi level referencing procedures. This enables the precise and accurate determination of previously elusive water solvent and solute vertical ionization energies, VIEs. Notably, this includes quantification of solute-induced perturbations of water's electronic energetics and VIE definition on an absolute and universal chemical potential scale. Defining and applying these procedures over a broad range of ionization energies, we accurately and respectively determine the VIE and oxidative stability of liquid water as 11.33 ± 0.03 eV and 6.60 ± 0.08 eV with respect to its liquid-vacuum-interface potential and Fermi level. Combining our referencing schemes, we accurately determine the work function of liquid water as 4.73 ± 0.09 eV. Further, applying our novel approach to a pair of exemplary aqueous solutions, we extract absolute VIEs of aqueous iodide anions, reaffirm the robustness of liquid water's electronic structure to high bulk salt concentrations (2 M sodium iodide), and quantify reference-level dependent reductions of water's VIE and a 0.48 ± 0.13 eV contraction of the solution's work function upon partial hydration of a known surfactant (25 mM tetrabutylammonium iodide). Our combined experimental accomplishments mark a major advance in our ability to quantify electronic–structure interactions and chemical reactivity in liquid water, which now explicitly extends to the measurement of absolute-scale bulk and interfacial solution energetics, including those of relevance to aqueous electrochemical processes. A generalised liquid-phase photoelectron spectroscopy approach is reported, allowing accurate, absolute energy scale ionisation energies of liquid water and aqueous solutions, as well as liquid water's work function to be reported.![]()
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephan Thürmer
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University Kitashirakawa-Oiwakecho, Sakyo-Ku Kyoto 606-8502 Japan
| | - Sebastian Malerz
- Molecular Physics Department, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Faradayweg 4-6 14195 Berlin Germany
| | - Florian Trinter
- Molecular Physics Department, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Faradayweg 4-6 14195 Berlin Germany .,Institut für Kernphysik, Goethe-Universität Max-von-Laue-Straße 1 60438 Frankfurt am Main Germany
| | - Uwe Hergenhahn
- Molecular Physics Department, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Faradayweg 4-6 14195 Berlin Germany
| | - Chin Lee
- Molecular Physics Department, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Faradayweg 4-6 14195 Berlin Germany .,Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley CA 94720 USA.,Department of Chemistry, University of California Berkeley CA 94720 USA
| | - Daniel M Neumark
- Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley CA 94720 USA.,Department of Chemistry, University of California Berkeley CA 94720 USA
| | - Gerard Meijer
- Molecular Physics Department, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Faradayweg 4-6 14195 Berlin Germany
| | - Bernd Winter
- Molecular Physics Department, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Faradayweg 4-6 14195 Berlin Germany
| | - Iain Wilkinson
- Department of Locally-Sensitive & Time-Resolved Spectroscopy, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1 14109 Berlin Germany
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