Hydrocarbon on Carbon: Coherent Vibrational Spectroscopy of Toluene on Graphite (HOPG)
- ORNL
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
The ability to study the interactions of hydrocarbons on carbon surfaces is an integral step towards gaining a molecular level understanding of the chemical reactions and physical properties occurring on them. Here, we apply vibrational sum frequency generation (SFG) to determine the tilt angle of toluene, a common organic solvent, on mm-thick highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG). The combination of a time-delay technique, which results in the successful suppression of the nonresonant SFG response, and a null angle method is shown to overcome the strong optical absorber problem posed by macroscopically thick carbon samples and yields a molecular tilt angle of toluene in the range of 37 to 42 degrees from surface normal. The implications of this approach for determining the orientation of organic species adsorbed on carbon interfaces important for energy relevant processes are discussed.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 1033181
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, Journal Name: Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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