We study the properties of the interface
of water and the surfactant
hexaethylene glycol monododecyl ether (C12E6) with a combination of
heterodyne-detected vibrational sum frequency generation (HD-VSFG),
Kelvin-probe measurements, and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations.
We observe that the addition of the hydrogen-bonding surfactant C12E6,
close to the critical micelle concentration (CMC), induces a drastic
enhancement in the hydrogen bond strength of the water molecules close
to the interface, as well as a flip in their net orientation. The
mutual orientation of the water and C12E6 molecules leads to the emergence
of a broad (∼3 nm) interface with a large electric field of
∼1 V/nm, as evidenced by the Kelvin-probe measurements and
MD simulations. Our findings may open the door for the design of novel
electric-field-tuned catalytic and light-harvesting systems anchored
at the water–surfactant–air interface.
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