日本理化学研究所Tahei Tahara团队发现苯酚在空气-水界面的光化学反应变得很快。 相关研究成果发表在2021年出版的《自然—化学》。

在自然界和各种化学体系中，水与其它相的界面反应起着重要的作用。尽管一些实验和理论研究表明，水界面上的化学反应可能不同于散装水中的化学反应，例如，“水催化”和光激发后空气-水界面上光化学惰性脂肪酸的激活，直接研究这些差异并达到分子水平的理解被证明是困难的。

该研究中，研究人员报告了使用超快相敏界面选择非线性振动光谱直接探测光化学反应发生在空气-水界面。所获得的飞秒时间分辨数据清楚地表明，苯酚在水面上的光电离反应速度是在水中的104倍（在相同能量的光子照射下）。该发现表明，水界面上的光化学反应与本体水中的光化学反应有很大的不同，反映了界面上不同的反应环境。

附：英文原文

Title: The photochemical reaction of phenol becomes ultrafast at the air–water interface

Author: Ryoji Kusaka, Satoshi Nihonyanagi, Tahei Tahara

Issue&Volume: 2021-02-08

Abstract: Reactions at the interface between water and other phases play important roles in nature and in various chemical systems. Although some experimental and theoretical studies suggest that chemical reactions at water interfaces can be different from those in bulk water—for example, ‘on-water catalysis’ and the activation of photochemically inert fatty acids at the air–water interface upon photoexcitation—directly investigating these differences and generating molecular-level understanding has proved difficult. Here, we report on the direct probing of a photochemical reaction occurring at the air–water interface, using ultrafast phase-sensitive interface-selective nonlinear vibrational spectroscopy. The femtosecond time-resolved data obtained clearly show that the photoionization reaction of phenol proceeds 104 times faster at the water surface than in the bulk aqueous phase (upon irradiation with photons with the same energy). This finding demonstrates that photochemical reactions at water interfaces are very different from those in bulk water, reflecting distinct reaction environments at the interface.

DOI: 10.1038/s41557-020-00619-5

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-020-00619-5