Raman Observation of the Interactions between NH₄⁺, SO₄^2-, and H₂O in Supersaturated (NH₄)₂SO₄Droplets

Abstract

High signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) Raman spectra of (NH(4))(2)SO(4) droplets deposited on a quartz substrate were obtained from dilute to supersaturated states upon decreasing the relative humidity (RH). When the molar water-to-solute ratio (WSR) decreases from 16.8 to 3.2, the v(1)-SO(4)(2-) band changes very little, that is, showing a red-shift of only about 1 cm(-1) (from 979.9 to 978.8 cm(-1)) and an increase of its full width at half-maximum (fwhm) from 8.3 to 9.8 cm(-1). Other vibration modes such as v(2)- and v(4)-SO(4)(2-) bands appear almost constantly at 452 and 615 cm(-1). Such kind of a spectroscopic characteristic is different from previous observation on other cations, indicating that the interactions between SO(4)(2-) and NH(4)+ in supersaturated states are similar to those between SO(4)(2-) and H(2)O in dilute states. After fitting the Raman spectra with Gaussian functions in the spectral range of 2400-4000 cm(-1), we successfully extracted six components at positions of 2878.7, 3032.1, 3115.0, 3248.9, 3468.4, and 3628.8 cm(-1), respectively. The first three components are assigned to the second overtone of NH(4)+ umbrella bending, the combination band of NH(4)+ umbrella bending and rocking vibrations, and the NH(4)+ symmetric stretching vibration, while the latter three components are from the strongly, weakly, and slightly hydrogen-bonded components of water molecules, respectively. With a decrease of the RH, the proportion of the strongly hydrogen-bonded components increases, while that of the weakly hydrogen-bonded components decreases in the droplets. The coexistence of strongly, weakly, and slightly hydrogen-bonded water molecules must hint at a similar hydrogen-bonding network of NH(4)+, SO(4)(2-), and H(2)O to that of pure liquid water in supersaturated (NH(4))(2)SO(4) droplets.