Surface relaxation in liquid water and methanol studied by x-ray absorption spectroscopy

X-ray absorption spectroscopy is a powerful probe of local electronic structure in disordered media. By employing extended x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy of liquid microjets, the intermolecular O-O distance has been observed to undergo a 5.9% expansion at the liquid water interface, in contrast to liquid methanol for which there is a 4.6% surface contraction. Despite the similar properties of liquid water and methanol (e.g., abnormal heats of vaporization, boiling points, dipole moments, etc.), this result implies dramatic differences in the surface hydrogen bond structure, which is evidenced by the difference in surface tension of these liquids. This result is consistent with surface vibrational spectroscopy, which indicates both stronger hydrogen bonding and polar ordering at the methanol surface as a consequence of "hydrophobic packing" of the methyl group. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.