Issue 13, 2016

A sum-frequency generation spectroscopic study of the Gibbs analysis paradox: monolayer or sub-monolayer adsorption?

Abstract

The Gibbs adsorption isotherm (GAI) has been considered as the foundation of surfactant adsorption studies for over a century; however, its application in determining the limiting surface excess has recently been intensively discussed, with contradictory experimental evidence either supporting or refuting the theory. The available arguments are based on monolayer adsorption models. In this paper, we experimentally and intellectually propose and validate the contribution of sub-monolayer adsorption to the GAI paradox. We utilize a powerful intrinsically surface-sensitive technique, vibrational sum-frequency generation spectroscopy (SFG), complementing with conventional tensiometric measurements to address these controversies both quantitatively and qualitatively. Our SFG results revealed that the precipitous decrease in surface tension directly corresponds to surface occupancy by adsorbates. In addition, the Gibbs analysis was successfully applied to the soluble monolayer of a surface-active alcohol to full saturation. However, the full saturation of the topmost monolayer does not necessarily mean that the surface adsorption was completed because the adsorption was observed to continuously occur in the sub-monolayer region soon after the topmost monolayer became saturated. Nonetheless, the Gibbs isotherm failed to account for the excess of alcohol adsorbed in this sub-monolayer region. This new concept of surface excess must therefore be treated thermodynamically.

Graphical abstract: A sum-frequency generation spectroscopic study of the Gibbs analysis paradox: monolayer or sub-monolayer adsorption?

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
12 Oct 2015
Accepted
13 Nov 2015
First published
16 Nov 2015

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2016,18, 8794-8805

Author version available

A sum-frequency generation spectroscopic study of the Gibbs analysis paradox: monolayer or sub-monolayer adsorption?

A. A. Shahir, K. T. Nguyen and A. V. Nguyen, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2016, 18, 8794 DOI: 10.1039/C5CP06157A

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