Experimentally quantifying anion polarizability at the air/water interface

The adsorption of large, polarizable anions from aqueous solution on the air/water interface controls important atmospheric chemistry and is thought to resemble anion adsorption at hydrophobic interfaces generally. While the favourability of adsorption of such ions is clear, quantifying adsorption thermodynamics has proven challenging because it requires accurate description of the structure of the anion and its solvation shell at the interface. In principle anion polarizability offers a structural window, but to the best of our knowledge there has so far been no experimental technique that allowed its characterization with interfacial specificity. Here, we meet this challenge using interface-specific vibrational spectroscopy of Cl–O vibrations of the $${\mathrm{ClO}}_4^ -$$ClO 4 - anion at the air/water interface and report that the interface breaks the symmetry of the anion, the anisotropy of $${\mathrm{ClO}}_4^ -$$ClO 4 - ’s polarizability tensor is more than two times larger than in bulk water and concentration dependent, and concentration-dependent polarizability changes are consistent with correlated changes in surface tension.