With support from the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program, Professor Nathanson is studying the gas-liquid interface by scattering molecular beams from liquid surfaces. His group is studying the local roughness and rigidity of the surface and the effect of solvent molecules on solvation, surface adsorption, and surface chemistry. Under vacuum conditions that suppress collisions in the vapor above the surface, Nathanson uses time-of-flight spectroscopy to measure the details of scattering and adsorption-desorption of individual solute molecules striking the liquid surface. Inert gases and protic solutes such as water and ammonia are being scattered from hydrophobic, hydrogen-bonding, and acidic liquids to learn how the incident collision energy and angle of approach of the impinging beam control adsorption, solvation, and proton exchange at the interface.
