Water structure and electric fields at the interface of oil droplets

Abstract

Interfacial water exhibits rich and complex behaviour¹, playing an important part in chemistry, biology, geology and engineering. However, there is still much debate on the fundamental properties of water at hydrophobic interfaces, such as orientational ordering, the concentration of hydronium and hydroxide, improper hydrogen bonds and the presence of large electric fields^2,3,4,5. This controversy arises from the challenges in measuring interfacial systems, even with the most advanced experimental techniques and theoretical approaches available. Here we report on an in-solution, interface-selective Raman spectroscopy method using multivariate curve resolution^6,7 to probe hexadecane-in-water emulsions, aided by a monomer-field theoretical model for Raman spectroscopy⁸. Our results indicate that oil–water emulsion interfaces can exhibit reduced tetrahedral order and weaker hydrogen bonding, along with a substantial population of free hydroxyl groups that experience about 95 cm⁻¹ redshift in their stretching mode compared with planar oil–water interfaces. Given the known electrostatic zeta potential characteristic of oil droplets⁹, we propose the existence of a strong electric field (about 50–90 MV cm⁻¹) emanating from the oil phase. This field is inferred indirectly but supported by control experiments and theoretical estimates. These observations are either absent or opposite in the molecular hydrophobic interface formed by small solutes or at planar oil–water interfaces. Instead, water structural disorder and enhanced electric fields emerge as unique features of the mesoscale interface in oil–water emulsions, potentially contributing to the accelerated chemical reactivity observed at hydrophobic–water interfaces^10,11,12,13.