Molecular beam scattering of neon from flat jets of cold salty water

Molecular beam scattering experiments are carried out to study collisions between Ne atoms (E_i = 24.3 kJ mol⁻¹) and the surface of a cold salty water (8 m LiBr_(aq), 230 K) flat jet. Translational energy distributions are collected as a function of scattering angle using a rotatable mass spectrometer. Impulsive scattering and thermal desorption contribute to the overall scattering distributions, but impulsive scattering dominates at all three incidence angles explored. Highly super-specular scattering is observed in the impulsive scattering channel that is attributed to anisotropic momentum transfer to the liquid surface. The thermal desorption channel exhibits a cos θ angular distribution. Compared to Ne scattering from dodecane, fractional energy loss in the impulsive scattering channel is much larger across a wide range of deflection angles. A soft-sphere model is applied to investigate the kinematics of energy transfer between the scatterer and liquid surface. Fitting to this model yields an effective surface mass of 250₋₆₀⁺¹⁰⁰ amu and internal excitation of 11.8 ± 1.6 kJ mol⁻¹, both of which are considerably larger than for Ne/dodecane. It thus appears that energy transfer to cold salty water is more efficient than to a dodecane liquid surface, a result attributed to the extensive hydrogen-bonded network of liquid water and roughness of the liquid surface.