Helium‐Scattering Studies of the Dynamics and Phase Transitions of Surfaces

Kern, Klaus; Comşa, George

doi:10.1002/9780470141250.ch5

Cited by 12 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Helium atom scattering is an enormously powerful tool to elucidate the surface structure and surface vibrations of crystalline solids, organic monolayers, and even polymer films. − The diffraction features that make this technique so useful are unfortunately lost for room-temperature liquids because of long-range disorder and extensive thermal motions that promote energy transfer between the He and surface atoms. However, it may still be possible to glean insights into interfacial motions and packing by replacing He atom scattering with He atom evaporation from liquids .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Probing Gas–Liquid Interfacial Dynamics by Helium Evaporation from Hydrocarbon Liquids and Jet Fuels

et al. 2015

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We have monitored the speeds of evaporating helium atoms dissolved in liquid octane, isooctane, 1-methylnaphthalene, dodecane, squalane, ethylene glycol, and two jet fuels. In all cases, the average kinetic energies of the evaporating He atoms exceed the Maxwellian value of 2RT. The energies roughly track solvent surface tensions; this correlation may reflect the tighter packing and attractions of interfacial solvent molecules that restrict the gaps through which He atoms escape. Mixtures of dodecane, squalane, and 1-methylnaphthalene generate He evaporation energies that lie between the pure liquid values. We find, however, that He atoms evaporate from pure 1-methylnaphthalene with kinetic energies lower than expected based on its high surface tension, perhaps because the sideways packing of the aromatic rings provides more direct channels for the escaping He atoms. Additionally, He evaporates from two complex fuel mixtures, Jet A and JP-8, with nearly identical energies, implying that the extra additives in JP-8 do not segregate to the surface in ways that alter the dynamics of evaporation. ■ INTRODUCTIONHelium atom scattering is an enormously powerful tool to elucidate the surface structure and surface vibrations of crystalline solids, organic monolayers, and even polymer films. 1−5 The diffraction features that make this technique so useful are unfortunately lost for room-temperature liquids because of long-range disorder and extensive thermal motions that promote energy transfer between the He and surface atoms. However, it may still be possible to glean insights into interfacial motions and packing by replacing He atom scattering with He atom evaporation from liquids. 6 We continue our studies here by measuring the energy distributions of He atoms evaporating from a wide range of linear and branched hydrocarbon liquids, including mixtures, jet fuels, and ethylene glycol (as a model for a deicing additive). The experiments are performed by dissolving He atoms into each liquid, injecting the liquids into a vacuum as microjets, 7,8 and monitoring the velocities of the evaporating He atoms.The evaporation of He atoms dissolved in hydrocarbons, alcohols, and salty water appears to be special: these small and weakly attractive atoms evaporate at speeds that are faster than predicted by a Maxwell−Boltzmann (MB) distribution. This behavior stands in contrast to larger and more polarizable species such as Ar, N 2 , O 2 , H 2 O, CO 2 , HCl, and HNO 3 , which evaporate with flux-weighted average energies of 2RT liq consistent with a MB energy distribution for a liquid at temperature T liq . 6,9 We recently found that the He speed distributions depend on the nature of the solvent molecules, with average kinetic energies ranging from 1.14 × 2RT liq for He evaporation from dodecane to 1.7 × 2RT liq from a 7.5 M LiBr/ H 2 O solution. 6 Detailed balancing of the incoming and outgoing fluxes implies that He atoms must preferentially dissolve at higher kinetic energies as well. 10 In this timereversed picture, the attractive...

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