Sea-spray aerosol particles have major yet poorly understood influence on the state of the atmosphere. Although non-linear vibrational spectroscopy is a reliable technique for probing the nature of aerosol interfaces, resolving the spectral features into specific structural and dynamical properties of the interface poses substantial difficulties. Here, computer simulations are used to disentangle strictly surface-sensitive contributions from bulk-dependent effects at a model sea-spray aerosol, which allows for a detailed, molecular-level characterization of the interfacial properties.

Sea spray aerosols (SSA) are known to have an organic coating that is mainly composed of fatty acids. In this study, the effect of pH and salt on the stability and organization of a palmitic acid (PA) monolayer is investigated by surface vibrational spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations. Results indicate that alkyl chain packing becomes more disordered as the carboxylic headgroup becomes deprotonated. This is associated with packing mismatch of charged and neutral species as charged headgroups penetrate deeper into the solution phase. At pH 10.7, when the monolayer is ∼99% deprotonated, palmitate (PA) molecules desorb and solubilize into the bulk solution where there is spectroscopic evidence for aggregate formation. Yet, addition of 100 mM NaCl to the bulk solution is found to drive PA molecules to the aqueous surface. Free energy calculations show that PA molecules become stabilized within the interface with increasing NaCl concentration. Formation of contact -COO:Na pairs alters the hydration state of PA headgroups, thus increasing the surface propensity. As salts are highly concentrated in SSA, these results suggest that deprotonated fatty acids may be found at the air-aqueous interface of aerosol particles due to sea salt's role in surface stabilization.

Vibrational sum-frequency generation (vSFG) spectroscopy is used to determine the molecular structure of water at the interface of palmitic acid monolayers. Both measured and calculated spectra display speci c features due to third-order contributions to the vSFG response which are associated with nite interfacial electric potentials. We demonstrate that theoretical modeling enables to separate the third-order contributions, thus allowing for a systematic analysis of the strictly surface-sensitive, second-order component of the vSFG response. This study provides fundamental, molecular-level insights into the interfacial structure of water in a neutral surfactant system with relevance to single layer bio-membranes and environmentally relevant sea-spray aerosols. These results emphasize the key role that computer simulations can play in interpreting vSFG spectra and revealing microscopic details of water at complex interfaces, which can be difficult to extract from experiments due to the mixing of second-order, surface-sensitive and third-order, bulk-dependent contributions to the vSFG response.

Vibrational sum-frequency generation (vSFG) spectroscopy is used to determine the molecular structure of water at the interface of palmitic acid monolayers. Both measured and calculated spectra display speci c features due to third-order contributions to the vSFG response which are associated with nite interfacial electric potentials. We demonstrate that theoretical modeling enables to separate the third-order contributions, thus allowing for a systematic analysis of the strictly surface-sensitive, second-order component of the vSFG response. This study provides fundamental, molecular-level insights into the interfacial structure of water in a neutral surfactant system with relevance to single layer bio-membranes and environmentally relevant sea-spray aerosols. These results emphasize the key role that computer simulations can play in interpreting vSFG spectra and revealing microscopic details of water at complex interfaces, which can be difficult to extract from experiments due to the mixing of second-order, surface-sensitive and third-order, bulk-dependent contributions to the vSFG response.