For years, scientists thought they had a good grasp on what happens when a molecule of water meets air. But a recent discovery by Dr. Yair Litman and his team has shaken up some long-held beliefs in climate science.
The researchers found that the molecules at the surface of saltwater organize themselves in a way that’s totally different from what we ever thought. The traditional view, found in most textbooks, was simple: ions, which are either positively or negatively charged, line up at the surface and organize water molecules in one direction. But according to this new research, that’s not how things work at all.
The team used a more advanced form of a technique called heterodyne-detected vibrational sum-frequency generation (HD-VSFG). This allowed them to measure the vibrations of the ions and determine their direction.
The result? They discovered that ions at the surface of saltwater don’t just form a single layer and organize water molecules in one direction. Instead, ions organize water molecules both up and down, flipping the textbook model on its head.
This means that rather than ions neatly lining up and orienting water molecules in one direction, they create a much more complex and dynamic environment. The implications of this study don’t stop at atmospheric science. Mischa Bonn, head of the Molecular Spectroscopy department at the Max Planck Institute, believes that this discovery could pave the way for a deeper understanding of other interfaces, like those found in batteries.
The next steps? Applying these techniques to even more complex systems, like the interactions between water and solids, which could help us understand everything from pollution to clean energy. The full study was published in the journal Nature Chemistry.
Source: https://www.earth.com/news/new-discovery-water-molecules-will-force-chemistry-textbooks-to-be-rewritten/