Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 4, 2026

Interfacial Molecular-level Structures of Polymers and Biomacromolecules Revealed via Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy
Published on: August 13, 2019
Anomalous effective polarity of an air/liquid-mixture interface: a heterodyne-detected electronic and vibrational sum
Sudip Kumar Mondal1, Ken-ichi Inoue, Shoichi Yamaguchi
1Molecular Spectroscopy Laboratory, RIKEN, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako 351-0198, Japan.
Abstract:
We study the effective polarity of an air/liquid-mixture interface by using interface-selective heterodyne-detected electronic sum frequency generation (HD-ESFG) and vibrational sum frequency generation (HD-VSFG) spectroscopies. With water and N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) chosen as two components of the liquid mixture, the bulk polarity of the mixture is controlled nearly arbitrarily by the mixing ratio. The effective polarity of the air/mixture interface is evaluated by HD-ESFG with a surface-active solvatochromic molecule used as a polarity indicator. Surprisingly, the interfacial effective polarity of the air/mixture interface increases significantly, when the bulk polarity of the mixture decreases (i.e. when the fraction of DMF increases). Judging from the hydrogen-bond structure at the air/mixture interface clarified by HD-VSFG, this anomalous change of the interfacial effective polarity is attributed to the interface-specific solvation structure around the indicator molecule at the air/mixture interface.
Related Concept Videos
IR Spectrum Peak Splitting: Symmetric vs Asymmetric Vibrations
IR Spectroscopy: Hooke's Law Approximation of Molecular Vibration
According to Hooke's law, the vibrational frequency is directly proportional to...
¹H NMR: Complex Splitting
Splitting diagrams or splitting tree diagrams are routinely used to depict such complex couplings. While drawing splitting diagrams, the splitting with the larger coupling constant is usually applied...
π Electron Effects on Chemical Shift: Overview
Spin–Spin Coupling Constant: Overview
Qualitatively, any spin plus-half nucleus polarizes the spins of its electrons to the minus-half state. Consequently, the paired electron in the hydrogen–carbon bond must...
¹H NMR: Interpreting Distorted and Overlapping Signals
As Δν decreases and the signals move closer, the doublets appear increasingly distorted. The intensities of the inner lines increase at the cost of those of the outer lines as the signals are...

