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Updated: Aug 27, 2025

Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Interfacial Water with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy
Published on: May 27, 2018
Chirality Discrimination at Binary Organic|Water Interfaces Monitored by Interfacial Tension Measurements with
Yanqing Yang1, Xiaoyu Sun2, Mohammad Reza Poopari1
1Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2G2, Canada.
Abstract:
Chirality discrimination at a binary toluene (organic)/water(aqueous) interface between R- or S-Tol-BINAP (2,2'-Bis(di-p-tolylphosphino)-1,1'-binaphthyl) molecules and the water-soluble serine chiral specie is examined for the first time, using a combination of interfacial tension measurements and molecular dynamic simulations. Experimental interfacial measurements exhibit a clear chirality-controlled difference when a homochiral versus a heterochiral enantiomeric pairs are introduced at the interfaces. The related molecular dynamics simulations support the experimental results and provide further molecular insight of intermolecular interactions at the interfaces. The results indicate that interfacial tension measurements can capture the preferential interactions which exist between different pairs of enantiomers at the binary interfaces, opening up a new way for probing chirality discrimination at liquid-liquid interfaces.
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