Publications by Nikolay Smolentsev

Self-Assembly at Water Nanodroplet Interfaces Quantified with Nonlinear Light Scattering

The interfaces of water micro- and nanodroplets drive environmental, medical, catalytic, biological, and chemical biphasic processes. The interfacial droplet structure and electrostatics greatly determine the reactivity and efficiency of these processes. D ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2020

The interfacial structure of nano-and micron-sized oil and water droplets stabilized with SDS and Span80

Sylvie Roke, Nikolay Smolentsev, Evangelia Zdrali, Esther Amstad, Gianluca Nicolas Etienne

In this work, we provide a comparison between the stability and the interfacial structure of micrometer-sized and nanometer-sized droplets by employing a multi-instrumental approach comprised of the surface-sensitive technique of sum frequency scattering a ...

2019

Polycation Interactions with Zwitterionic Phospholipid Monolayers on Oil Nanodroplets Suspensions in Water (D2O) Probed by Sum Frequency Scattering

Sylvie Roke, Nikolay Smolentsev

By combining dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements and infrared (IR) spectroscopy with the interface- and bond-specificity of vibrational sum frequency generation scattering (SFS) spectroscopy, we probe several structural aspects of how zwitterionic ...

2018

The interfacial structure of water droplets in a hydrophobic liquid

Sylvie Roke, Nikolay Smolentsev

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2018

Intermolecular headgroup interaction and hydration as driving forces for lipid transmembrane asymmetry

Sylvie Roke, Cornelis Ulrich Lütgebaucks, Nikolay Smolentsev, Halil Ibrahim Okur

ACS2018

Hydration mediated interfacial transitions on mixed hydrophobic/hydrophilic nanodroplet interfaces

Sylvie Roke, Rüdiger Scheu, Nikolay Smolentsev, Filip Kovacik, Halil Ibrahim Okur

Interfacial phase transitions are of fundamental importance for climate, industry, and biological processes. In this work, we observe a hydration mediated surface transition in supercooled oil nanodroplets in aqueous solutions using second harmonic and sum ...

2018

The interfacial structure of water droplets in a hydrophobic liquid

Sylvie Roke, Nikolay Smolentsev

Nanoscopic and microscopic water droplets and ice crystals embedded in liquid hydrophobic surroundings are key components of aerosols, rocks, oil fields and the human body. The chemical properties of such droplets critically depend on the interfacial struc ...

Springer Nature2017

Molecular-level characterization of curved water interfaces with sum frequency and second harmonic scattering

Nikolay Smolentsev

Aqueous interfaces are omnipresent in nature. Some of them are visible: droplets in clouds, aerosols, and surfaces of oceans, lakes, and rivers. Many more surfaces are hidden: water in contact with cell membranes, proteins, and the surface of droplets in e ...

EPFL2017

Interfacial Structure and Hydration of 3D Lipid Monolayers in Aqueous Solution

Yixing Chen, Sylvie Roke, Nikolay Smolentsev, Evangelia Zdrali, Halil Ibrahim Okur

Three-dimensional (3D) phospholipid monolayers at hydrophobic surfaces are ubiquitous and found in nature as adiposome organelles or in man-made materials such as drug delivery systems. However, the molecular level understanding of such monolayers remains ...

American Chemical Society2017

Intermolecular Headgroup Interaction and Hydration as Driving Forces for Lipid Transmembrane Asymmetry

Sylvie Roke, Cornelis Ulrich Lütgebaucks, Nikolay Smolentsev, Halil Ibrahim Okur

Variations between the inner and outer leaflets of cell membranes are crucial for cell functioning and signaling, drug–membrane interactions, and the formation of lipid domains. Transmembrane asymmetry can in principle be comprised of an asymmetric charge ...

American Chemical Society2016

Freezing effects of oil-in-water emulsions studied by sum-frequency scattering spectroscopy

Sylvie Roke, Nikolay Smolentsev

Temperature-dependent sum-frequency scattering spectroscopy is used to study the properties of hexadecane and dodecane oil droplets in water. The sum-frequency scattering spectra contain vibrational bands that correspond to the symmetric and antisymmetric ...

Amer Inst Physics2016

Sum frequency spectroscopy of the hydrophobic nanodroplet/water interface: Absence of hydroxyl ion and dangling OH bond signatures

Sylvie Roke, Rüdiger Scheu, Nikolay Smolentsev

Vibrational sum frequency scattering measurements were performed on deuterated hexadecane oil nanodroplets dispersed in aqueous pH neutral and basic solutions. The predominant symmetry of the observed vibrational signatures was derived using nonlinear ligh ...

Elsevier2014

Sum frequency and second harmonic generation from the surface of a liquid microjet

Yixing Chen, Sylvie Roke, Kailash Chandra Jena, Nikolay Smolentsev

The use of a liquid microjet as a possible source of interest for Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) and Sum Frequency Generation (SFG) spectroscopy is examined. We measured non-resonant SHG scattering patterns from the air/water interface of a microjet of p ...

Amer Inst Physics2014