Langmuir, Vol.30, No.33, 9951-9961, 2014
Detection and Characterization of Liquid vertical bar Solid and Liquid vertical bar Liquid vertical bar Solid Interfacial Gradients of Water Nanodroplets in Wet N-Octyl-2-Pyrrolidone
We report on the rotational diffusion dynamics and fluorescence lifetime of lissamine rhodamine B sulfonyl chloride (LRSC) in two thin-film experimental configurations. These are liquid vertical bar solid interfaces, where N-octyl-2-pyrrolidone (NOP) containing water and ethylene glycol (EG) thin films are each supported on glass, and a liquid vertical bar lliquid vertical bar solid interface where thin films of water and NOP, both supported on glass, are in contact with one another, forming an NOP vertical bar water interface. The reorientation dynamics and fluorescence lifetime of LRSC are measured as a function of distance from the NOP vertical bar glass and EG vertical bar glass interfaces and from the NOP vertical bar water and NOP vertical bar glass interfaces in the liquid vertical bar liquid vertical bar solid experimental configuration. Fluorescence anisotropy decay data from the liquid vertical bar solid systems reveal a liquid film depth-dependent gradient spanning tens of micrometers from the NOP vertical bar glass interface into the wet NOP phase, while this gradient is absent in EG. We interpret these findings in the context of a compositional gradient in the NOP phase. The spatially resolved fluorescence lifetime and anisotropy decay data for an NOP vertical bar water vertical bar glass interfacial structure exhibits the absence of a gradient in the anisotropy decay profile normal to the NOP vertical bar water interface and the presence of a fluorescence lifetime gradient as a function of distance from the NOP vertical bar water interface. The compositional heterogeneity for both interfacial systems is in the form of water nanodroplets in the NOP phase. We understand this compositional gradient in the context of the relative surface energies of the water, NOP, and glass components.