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PHOTOCHEMISTRY

Speedy at the surface

Nature Reviews Chemistry volume 6, page 302 (2022)Cite this article

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It is well known that a solute’s reactivity can vary dramatically depending on its solvation environment, which differs between the bulk solution and at the interface with air or another solvent. In a report from 2021, Tahei Tahara and colleagues at RIKEN found that the photoionization of phenol at the air–water interface was several orders of magnitude faster than that in bulk solution. Now, Tahara, with Tatsuya Ishiyama from RIKEN in collaboration with Akihiro Morita from Kyoto University, were able to elucidate the microscopic mechanism underlying this surprisingly large difference in reaction kinetics.

Hydration levels were classified into three categories on the basis of the number of water molecules in phenol’s hydration shell: surface (I), ~1 water — associated with the phenyl hydroxyl group; surface (II), ~7 waters; and bulk (III), ~14 waters. The reaction barrier for phenol at the surface (I) is substantially lower than that of surface (II) and bulk (III).

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Original article

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  • Kusaka, R. et al. The photochemical reaction of phenol becomes ultrafast at the air–water interface. Nat. Chem. 13, 306–311 (2021)

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  1. Nature Reviews Chemistry http://www.nature.com/natrevchem/

    Stacey-Lynn Paiva

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  1. Stacey-Lynn Paiva
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Correspondence to Stacey-Lynn Paiva.

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Paiva, SL. Speedy at the surface. Nat Rev Chem 6, 302 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-022-00390-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-022-00390-w

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