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Updated: Jun 3, 2026

Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Interfacial Water with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy
Published on: May 27, 2018
Hydrogen-bond-assisted excited-state deactivation at liquid/water interfaces
Piotr Fita1, Marina Fedoseeva, Eric Vauthey
1Department of Physical Chemistry, University of Geneva, 30 Quai Ernest-Ansermet, CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland.
Abstract:
The excited-state dynamics of eosin B (EB) at dodecane/water and decanol/water interfaces has been investigated with polarization-dependent and time-resolved surface second harmonic generation. The results of the polarization-dependent measurements vary substantially with (1) the EB concentration, (2) the age of the sample, and (3) the nature of the organic phase. All of these effects are ascribed to the formation of EB aggregates at the interface. Aggregation also manifests itself in the time-resolved measurements as a substantial shortening of the excited-state lifetime of EB. However, independently of the dye concentration used, the excited-state lifetime of EB at both dodecane/water and decanol/water interfaces is much longer than in bulk water, where the excited-state population undergoes hydrogen-bond-assisted non-radiative deactivation in a few picoseconds. These results indicate that hydrogen bonding between EB and water molecules at liquid/water interfaces is either much less efficient than in bulk water or does not enhance non-radiative deactivation. This strong increase of the excited-state lifetime of EB at liquid/water interfaces opens promising avenues of applying this molecule as a fluorescent interfacial probe.
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